liforniaj 

ional 

lity 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


THE   LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

A   SUMMARY  OF  INVESTIGATIONS 

CONDUCTED   BY 

THE  COMMITTEE  OF  FIFTY 


THE 

LIQUOR   PROBLEM 

A  SUMMARY  OF  INVESTIGATIONS 

CONDUCTED  BY 

THE   COMMITTEE   OF   FIFTY 
1893-1903 

PREPARED  FOR  THE  COMMITTEE   BY 

JOHN    S.   BILLINGS,   CHARLES  W.   ELIOT. 

HENRY  W.  FARNAM,   JACOB   L.   GREENE, 

AND   FRANCIS  G.   PEABODY 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN   AND   COMPANY 

1905 


5  J    •     * 


COPYRIGHT  1905  BY  FRANCIS  G.  PEABODY 
ALL   RIGHTS  RESERVED 

Published  September  iqos 


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CONTENTS 

PAOB 

I.  Introduction.    By  Francis  G.  Peabody  .    .      1 

II.  A  Summary  of  Investigations  concerning 

THE  Physiological  Aspects  of  the  Liquor 

Problem.    By  John  S.  Billings  ....    15 

III.  A  Summary  of  Investigations  concerning 

n  the  Legislative  Aspects.    By  Charles  W. 

^"^^  Euot    .    .   • 43 

^\'^       IV.  A  Summary   of  Investigations   concerning 
the    Economic    Aspects.    By   Henry  W. 

Fabnam 79 

V.  A  Summary   of  Investigations   concerning 

THE  Ethical  Aspects.  By  Jacob  L.  Greene  135 
VI.  A  Summary  of  Investigations   concerning 
Substitutes  for  the  Saloon.  By  Raymond 
Calkins 143 


20788 


>•■; 


PRESENT  OKGANIZATION  OF  THE 

COMMITTEE  OF  FIFTY 

May,  1905 


OFFICERS 


President. 
Hon.  Skth  Low,  LL.  D.,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
Vice-President. 
♦Charles  Dudley  Warner,  Esq.,  Hartford,  Conn. 

Secretary. 
Prof.  Francis  G.  Peabody,  D.  D.,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

Treasurer, 

♦Wm.  E.  Dodge,  Esq.,  99  John  St.,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Executive  Board. 

THE  ABOVE  NAMED   OFFICERS   AND: 

Dr.  J.  S.  Billings,  Astor  Library,  40  Lafayette  Place,  New 

York,  N.  Y. 
President  Charles  W.  Eliot,  LL.  D.,  Harvard  University, 

Cambridge,  Mass. 
*Col.  Jacob  L.  Greene,  Hartford,  Conn. 
Hon.  Carroll  D.  Wright,  A.  M.,  LL.  D.,  Clark  College, 

Worcester,  Mass. 

Members. 
Prof.  Felix  Adler,  123  East  60th  St.,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
Bishop  Edw.  G.  Andrews,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Building,  150 

Fifth  Ave.,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
Prof.  W.  O.  Atwater,  Wesleyan  University,  Middletown, 

Conn. 


viii  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  FIFTY 

Dr,  J.  S.  Billings,  Astor  Library,  40  Lafayette  Place,  New 

York,  N.  Y. 
Charles  J.  Bonaparte,  Esq.,  216  St.  Paul  St.,  Baltimore, 

Md. 
Prof.  H.  P.  Bowditch,  Harvard  Medical  School,  Boston, 

Mass. 
Kev.  Prof.  Charles  A.  Briggs,  D.  D.,  700  Park  Ave.,  New 

York,  N.  Y. 
Z.  R.  Brockway,  Esq.,  State  Reformatory,  Elmira,  N.  Y. 
John  Graham  Brooks,  Esq.,  Francis  Ave.,  Cambridge,  Mass. 
*Hon.  James  C.  Carter,  54  Wall  St.,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
Prof.  R.  H.  Chittenden,  Sheffield  Scientific  School,  New 

Haven,  Conn. 
Right  Rev.  Thomas  Conaty,  D.  D.,  114  East  2d  St.,  Los 

Angeles,  Cal. 
John  H.  Converse,  Esq.,  Baldwin  Locomotive  Works,  Phila- 
delphia, Penn. 
Wm.  Bayard  Cutting,  Esq.,  34  Nassau  St.,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
Rev.  S.  W.  Dike,  LL.  D.,  Auburndale,  Mass. 
♦Wm.  E.  Dodge,  Esq.,  99  John  St.,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
Rev.  Father  A.  P.  Doyle,  Paulist  Fathers,  455  West  69th 

St.,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
President  Charles  W.  Eliot,  LL.  D.,  Harvard  University, 

Cambridge,  Mass. 
Rev.  Father  Walter  Elliot,  Paulist  Fathers,  455  West  59th 

St.,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
Prof.  Richard  T.  Ely,  University  of  Wisconsin,  Madison, 

Wis. 
Prof.  Henry  W.  Farnam,  43  Hillhouse  Ave.,  New  Haven, 

Conn. 
Rt.  Rev.  T.  F.  Gailor,  D.  D.,  University  of  the  South,  Se- 

wanee,  Tenn. 
Daniel  C.  Gilman,  LL.  D.,  Baltimore,  Md. 
Rev.  Washington  Gladden,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  Columbus,  Ohio. 
Richard  W.  Gilder,  Esq.,  Union  Square,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
Dr.  E.  R.  L.  Gould,  281  Fourth  Ave.,  New  York,  N.  Y. 


THE  COMMITTEE  OF  FIFTY  ix 

*Col.  Jacob  L.  Greene,  LL.  D.,  Hartford,  Conn. 
Dr.  Edward  M.  Hartwell,  5  Brimmer  St.,  Boston,  Mass. 
Rev.  W.  R.  Huntington,  D.  D.,  Grace  Church,  804  Broad- 
way, New  York,  N.  Y. 
♦President  Wm.  Preston  Johnston,  LL.  D.,   Tulane  Uni- 
versity, New  Orleans,  La. 
Prof.  J.  F.  Jones,  Marietta,  Ohio. 
Hon.  Seth  Low,  LL.  D.,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
President   James   MacAlister,   LL.  D.,   Drexel   Institute, 

Philadelphia,  Penn. 
Rt.   Rev.  Alexander  Mackay-Smith,  D.  D.,  Philadelphia, 

Penn. 
Prof.  J.  J.  McCook,  Trinity  College,  Hartford,  Conn. 
Rev.  T.  T.  Munger,  D.  D.,  New  Haven,  Conn. 
Robert  C.  Ogden,  Esq.,  784  Broadway,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
Rev.  Prof.  Francis  G.  Peabody,  D.  D.,  Cambridge,  Mass. 
Rt.  Rev.  H.  C.  Potter,  D.  D.,  29  Lafayette  Place,  New 

York,  N.  Y. 
Rev.  W.  I.  Rainsf ord,  D.  D.,  209  East  16th  St.,  New  York, 

N.Y. 
Jacob  H.  Schiff,  Esq.,  27  Pine  St.,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
*Rev.  Prof.  C.  W.  Shields,  D.  D.,  Princeton,  N.  J. 
Prof.  W.  M.  Sloane,  Columbia  University,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
♦Charles  Dudley  Warner,  Esq.,  Hartford,  Conn. 
Dr.  Wm.  H.  Welch,  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital,  Baltimore, 

Md. 
Frederick  H.  Wines,  LL.  D.,  Springfield,  111. 
Hon.  Carroll  D.  Wright,  A.  M.,  LL.  D.,  Clark  College, 
Worcester,  Mass. 


I 

INTRODUCTION 

By  FRANCIS  G.  PEABODY 

8BCRETAKY   OF  THE   COMMITl'EE  OF   FIFTY 


INTKODUCTION 

The  Committee  of  Fifty  for  the  investisfa- 
tion  of  the  Liquor  Problem  was  organized  in 
1893.  Among  its  earliest  votes  was  the  fol- 
lowing Declaration  of  Intention :  "  This 
Committee,  made  up  of  persons  representing 
different  trades,  occupations,  and  opinions,  is 
engaged  in  the  study  of  the  Liquor  Problem, 
in  the  hope  of  securing  a  body  of  facts  which 
may  serve  as  a  basis  for  intelligent  public 
and  private  action.  It  is  the  purpose  of  the 
Committee  to  collect  and  collate  impartially, 
all  accessible  facts  which  bear  upon  the  prob- 
lem, and  it  is  their  hope  to  secure  for  the 
evidence  thus  accumulated  a  measure  of  con- 
fidence on  the  part  of  the  community  which 
is  not  accorded  to  personal  statements."  The 
Committee  of  Fifty  was  therefore  not  organ- 
ized to  create  one  more  agent  in  practical 
reform,  but  in  the  belief  that  a  consensus  of 
competent  opinion,  in  which  physiologists 
and  economists,  men  of  academic  life,  men 
of  affairs,  and  members  of  most  diverse  re- 


w- 


4  INTRODUCTION 

gious  communions,  could  unite,  would  pro- 
I  vide  a  starting-point  for  a  rational  and  trust- 
^  worthy  method  of  action.  "  It  was  from  the 
first  understood,"  wrote  the  Vice-President  of 
the  Committee,  Mr.  Charles  Dudley  Warner 
(Harper's  Magazine,  February,  1897),  "  that 
the  prime  business  of  the  Committee  was  not 
the  expression  of  opinion  or  the  advancing 
or  advocacy  of  one  theory  or  another,  but 
strictly  the  investigation  of  facts,  without 
reference  to  the  conclusions  to  which  they 
might  lead." 

On  October  20,  1893,  the  Committee  of 
\/  Fifty  appointed  four  sub-committees  to  con- 
sider respectively  the  physiological,  legisla- 
tive, economic,  and  ethical  aspects  of  the 
Drink-Question.  Each  of  these  sub-com- 
mittees undertook  a  series  of  independent 
investigations,  which  issued  in  a  series  of 
reports  concerning  some  aspects  of  the  prob- 
lem submitted  for  consideration.  To  each 
of  these  publications  has  been  prefixed  the 
following  note  :  "  By  vote  of  the  Committee 
of  Fifty,  January  10, 1896,  reports  made  by 
its  sub-committees  to  the  whole  body  may  be 
published  by  the  Executive  Committee  as 
contributions  to  the  general  inquiry ;  but  to 


INTRODUCTION  6 

all  such  publications  is  to  be  prefixed  the 
statement  that  reports  of  sub-committees  are 
to  be  regarded  as  preliminary  in  their  nature 
and  only  contributory  of  facts  upon  which 
the  general  discussion  may  in  future  be 
undertaken  by  the  Committee  as  a  whole.'* 
These  volumes  therefore  express  the  judg- 
ment of  the  sub-committees  only,  whose 
names  they  bear ;  though  it  is  believed  by 
the  Committee  of  Fifty  that  the  composi- 
tion of  its  sub-committees,  and  the  character 
of  the  researches  directed  by  them,  give 
reasonable  assurance  of  fidelity  in  the  pre- 
sentation and  estimate  of  the  evidence  ex- 
amined. The  volumes  thus  issued  have  been 
published  by  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  Bos- 
ton, as  follows :  (1)  The  Physiological  As- 
pects of  the  Liquor  Problem,  2  vols.,  8vo, 
$4.50  net,  1903 ;  (2)  The  Liquor  Problem 
in  its  Legislative  Aspects,  12mo,  $1.25, 
1897 ;  (3)  Economic  Aspects  of  the  Liquor 
Problem,  12mo,  $1.50,  1899;  (4)  Substi- 
tutes for  the  Saloon,  12mo,  $1.50,  1901. 

With  the  publication  of  these  volumes,  the 
programme  proposed  for  itself  by  the  Com- 
mittee of  Fifty  was  in  the  main  fulfilled. 
During  the  twelve  years  of  its  organization, 


6  INTRODUCTION 

the  Committee  has  met  in  general  session 
seventeen  times.  Each  member  has  paid  his 
own  expenses ;  and  the  laborious  and  ex- 
pensive investigations  of  the  sub-committees 
have  been  paid  either  by  members  of  those 
committees  or  by  subscriptions  privately  se- 
cured. The  Physiological  Sub-committee  has 
expended  $7,100 ;  the  Legislative  Sub-com- 
mittee, $6,945;  the  Economic  Sub-committee, 
$4,550 ;  and  the  Committee  on  Substitutes 
for  the  Saloon,  $404.36.  The  total  disburse- 
ment for  the  work  of  the  Committee  of  Fifty, 
apart  from  the  personal  expenses  of  the  mem- 
bers, has  been  approximately  $21,529.35. 

In  the  course  of  these  investigations,  how- 
ever, it  has  frequently  been  suggested  to  the 
Committee  of  Fifty  that  a  brief  Summary  of 
the  conclusions  reached  by  the  various  sub- 
committees might  be  of  interest  to  readers 
who  were  not  likely  to  examine  the  more 
elaborate  and  technical  volumes.  Serious  stu- 
dents of  the  Liquor  Problem  might  be  ex- 
pected to  analyze  with  care  the  mass  of  facts 
collected,  but  many  readers,  it  was  urged, 
would  be  satisfied  if  they  might  obtain,  in 
some  abbreviated  form,  an  indication  of  those 
results  of  inquiry  which   seem  to  have  im- 


INTRODUCTION  7 

mediate  bearing  on  the  practical  conduct  o£ 
life.  Accordingly,  on  February  10,  1904, 
it  -was  voted  :  ^^  That  the  Chairmen  of  the 
four  committees  responsible  for  the  volumes 
thus  far  issued  be  instructed,  in  cooperation 
with  their  colleagues,  to  prepare  Summaries 
of  their  researches,  adapted  so  far  as  possible 
to  popular  reading,  and  that  these  Chairmen, 
with  the  Secretary  of  the  Committee  of  Fifty, 
be  a  committee  to  incorporate  these  Summa- 
ries in  a  volume  of  moderate  size,  which  shall 
express  the  general  conclusions  of  the  work 
of  the  Committee  of  Fifty  and  shall  be  sub- 
mitted to  the  Committee  for  its  approval  at  a 
later  meeting." 

The  following  pages  contain  the  Summa- 
ries thus  authorized  and  approved.  It  is  neces- 
sary, however,  to  call  attention  once  more  to 
the  limited  scope  and  intention  of  the  entire 
series  of  investigations.  The  volumes  do  not 
enter  the  region  of  exhortation  and  argument, 
but  restrict  themselves  to  the  statement  of 
what  appear  to  be  demonstrable  facts  and  to 
the  inferences  which  these  facts  appear  to  dic- 
tate. On  no  other  terms  could  the  Committee 
of  Fifty  have  been  organized  or  maintained. 
Its  members  represented  many  different  atti- 


8  INTRODUCTION 

tildes  of  mind  toward  practical  methods  of 
temperance  reform ;  —  total  abstinence  and 
moderation,  legal  prohibition  and  the  licens- 
ing system.  The  problem  before  such  a  com- 
mittee was  that  of  formulating  the  facts  on 
which  thoughtful  students  of  various  tradi- 
tions and  tendencies  might  agree.  The  series 
of  sjDecial  investigations  are  not  missionary 
tracts  or  moral  appeals,  but  scientific  studies 
of  physical  and  social  facts. 

This  limitation  of  purpose,  however,  far 
from  indicating  indifference  to  practical  re- 
form, may  on  the  contrary  suggest  new  ways 
of  applying  the  spirit  of  reform.  If,  in  the  con- 
fusion of  opinion  which  prevails  concerning 
the  drink-problem,  a  body  of  facts  can  be  col- 
lected which  in  any  degree  represents  the  truth 
as  it  is  now  understood  by  students  of  physical 
and  social  life,  then  —  while  such  facts  are 
not  likely  to  satisfy  all  who  are  already  com- 
mitted to  special  methods  of  reform  —  they 
may  provide  a  foundation  for  more  rational 
and  comprehensive  measures.  The  cause  of 
temperance  has  been  much  obstructed  by 
intemperate  speech  and  exaggerated  state- 
ment, and  has  suffered  much  through  dis- 
sensions among  those  who  should  have  been 


INTRODUCTION  9 

allies.  There  is  much  to  fear  from  excess  of 
drink,  but  there  is  also  much  to  fear  from 
excessive  statements  which  experience  soon 
discovers  to  be  unsupported  by  facts.  An 
investigation,  therefore,  which  disclaims  di- 
dactic intention  may  not  be  without  didactic 
results.  To  affirm,  for  instance,  as  is  done  ~^ 
by  the  report  of  the  physiological  Sub-com- 
mittee, that  the  limit  of  judicious  use  of 
alcohol  as  a  beverage  is :  (a)  A  single  glass  \/ 
of  wine  per  day;  (b)  For  persons  of  middle 
age  or  over ;  (c)  As  a  sedative,  at  the  end  of 
the  day ;  may  appear  to  those  accustomed  to 
inflammatory  appeals  a  diluted  form  of  tem- 
perance argument,  but  to  other  minds  it  may 
appear  a  more  convincing  and  commanding 
statement  than  to  teach  that  a  single  glass 
of  beer  is  a  step  to  a  drunkard's  grave.  To 
point  out,  as  is  done  by  the  Legislative  Sub- 
committee, that  "  it  cannot  be  positively  af-  l 
firmed  that  any  kind  of  liquor  legislation  has  ^ 
been  more  successful  than  another  in  pro- 
moting real  temperance,"  may  be  to  minds 
trained  to  regard  a  single  form  of  legislation 
as  redemptive  a  somewhat  impotent  conclu- 
sion ;  but  this  apparently  negative  conclusion 
will  to  other  minds  open  the  way  to  a  more 


10  INTRODUCTION 

tolerant  and  judicious  application  of  law  as  a 
means  rather  than  an  end,  and  will  suggest 
a  cautious  opportunism  which  adapts  methods 
of  law  to  variations  in  local  condition,  racial 
tendency,  and  density  of  population. 

Indeed,  it  is  not  impossible  that  a  mere 
statement  of  the  facts  concerning  the  drink- 
habit,  as  that  social  peril  presents  itself  to  a 
considerable  number  of  reasonably  impartial 
observers,  may  of  itself  carry  to  some  minds 
the  force  of  a  new  argument  for  temperance. 
Differences  of  opinion  concerning  methods  of 
reform  should  not  obscure  the  practical  agree- 
ment of  all  thoughtful  students  of  society 
/  concerning  the  menace  to  modern  civilization 
I  through  the  abuse  of  alcoholic  drinks.  The 
truth  on  the  subject  is  so  grave  and  porten- 
tous that  it  needs  no  exhortation  to  carry 
an  appeal  to  the  conscience  and  the  will. 
According  to  the  Economic  Sub-committee, 
twenty-five  per  cent,  of  the  poverty  of  the 
United  States  may  be  traced  directly  or  indi- 
rectly to  liquor;  nearly  fifty  per  cent,  of 
V  crime  is  referred  to  intemperance  as  one 
cause,  and  in  thirty-one  per  cent,  it  appears 
as  a  first  cause.  Facts  so  prodigious  as  these 
should   silence   the   sectarian    controversies 


INTRODUCTION  11 

which  divide  the  advocates  o£  temperance, 
and  should  summon  all  intelligent  citizens 
to  the  realization  of  a  common  peril  and  a 
common  responsibility.  The  purpose  of  the 
Committee  of  Fifty  will  he  accomplished  if 
the  facts  which  thev  have  collected  and  set 
forth  may  contribute  in  any  degree  to  a 
more  rational  and  comprehensive  union  of 
the  forces  in  American  life  which  make  for 
sobriety,  self-control,  good  citizenship,  and 
social  responsibility. 

For  the  convenience  of  readers  who  may  wish  to  pro- 
ceed from  the  present  Summary  to  any  of  the  preceding 
volumes  issued  by  the  Committee  of  Fifty,  the  contents 
of  the    eries  may  be  briefly  indicated  :  — 

1.  The  Physiological  Aspects  of  the  Liquor  Problem ; 
2  volumes,  773  pages,  1903 :  Investigations  made  by 
and  under  the  direction  of  W.  O.  Atvvater,  John  S. 
Billings,  H.  P.  Bowditch,  R.  H.  Chittenden,  and  W. 
H.  Welch.   These  volumes  contain :  — 

i.  An  investigation  on  the  influence  of  alcohol  and 
alcoholic  drinks  upon  the  processes  of  digestion,  by 
Professor  R.  H.  Chittenden. 

ii.  A  fui'ther  study  of  the  influence  of  alcohol  and 
alcoholic  drinks  upon  digestion  with  special  reference 
to  secretion,  by  Professor  R.  H.  Chittenden,  Dr.  L.  M. 
Mendel,  and  Dr.  H.  C  Jackson. 

iii.  An  investigation  on  the  effects  of  long-continued 
doses  of  alcohol  or  alcoholic  liquors  in  producing  organic 
changes  in  certain  tissues  and  organs  of  the  body,  made 


12  INTRODUCTION 

by  Professor  William  H.  Welch  and  Dr.  J.  Frieden- 
wald. 

iv.  An  investigation  as  to  the  effects  of  alcohol  and 
alcoholic  drinks  on  the  growth,  development,  and  repro- 
ductive powers  of  animals,  by  Professor  C.  F.  Hodge 
of  Clark  University. 

V.  An  investigation  on  the  influence  of  alcoholism 
on  infection  and  immunity,  by  Professor  A.  C.  Abbott 
of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

vi.  An  investigation  of  the  extent  to  which  alcohol 
is  consumed  m  the  living  human  body,  and  its  action 
as  a  force  producer  and  a  food,  by  Professors  W.  O. 
Atwater  and  F.  G.  Benedict  of  Wesleyan  University. 

vii.  An  investigation  on  the  relations  between  the 
use  of  alcoholic  drinks  and  insanity,  made  by  the 
American  Medico-Psychological  Association. 

viii.  A  statistical  investigation  as  to  the  relative  pre- 
valence of  the  use  of  alcoholic  drinks  among  brain- 
workers  in  the  United  States,  by  Dr.  J.  S.  Billings. 

ix.  An  investigation  of  the  opinions  and  teachings 
of  leading  physiologists  and  pathologists  of  the  present 
day,  with  regard  to  the  effects  of  alcoholic  drinks,  and 
a  comparison  of  these  with  the  teachings  of  text-books 
in  use  in  the  common  schools  of  this  country,  by  Pro- 
fessors H.  P.  Bowditch  of  Harvard,  and  C.  F.  Hodge 
of  Clark  University. 

2.  The  Liquor  Problem  in  its  Legislative  Aspects, 
second  edition,  1900  :  An  investigation  made  under  the 
direction  of  Charles  W.  Eliot,  Seth  Low,  and  James 
C.  Carter. 

i.  A  study  of  Legislation  in  Maine  (prohibition),  Mas- 
sachusetts (local  option),  Pennsylvania  (high  license), 
South  Carolina  (State  dispensaries),  by  John  Keren. 


INTRODUCTION  13 

ii.  A  study  of  Legislation  In  Missouri  (local  option), 
Iowa  (prohibition),  Ohio  (State  tax),  and  Indiana 
(license),  by  Frederick  H.  Wines. 

3.  Economic  Aspects  of  the  Liquor  Problem,  1899 : 
An  investigation  made  under  the  direction  of  Henry 
W.  Farnam,  by  John  Koren,  with  the  cooperation  of 
the  representatives  of  thirty-three  charity  organization 
societies,  eleven  children's  aid  societies,  sixty  alms- 
houses, and  seventeen  prisons  and  reformatories. 

i.  The  Liquor  Problem  in  its  relation  to  poverty  and 
pauperism. 

ii.  The  Liquor  Problem  in  its  relation  to  the  desti- 
tution and  neglect  of  children. 

iii.  The  Liquor  Problem  in  its  relation  to  crime. 

iv.  The  relations  to  the  Liquor  Problem  of  the 
negroes  and  the  North  American  Indians. 

V.  Social  Aspects  of  the  Saloon  in  large  cities. 

4.  Substitutes  for  the  Saloon.  An  investigation  made 
under  the  direction  of  Francis  G.  Peabody,  Elgin  R.  L. 
Gould,  and  William  ]V^.  Sloane,  by  Raymond  Calkins, 
with  the  cooperation  of  many  teachers,  students,  settle- 
ment workers,  and  other  investigators. 

A  study  of  men's  clubs,  boys'  clubs,  churches,  mis- 
sions, coffee-houses,  amusements,  and  other  substitutes 
for  the  saloon. 

The  cities  selected  for  study  were :  — 

San  Francisco,  Denver,  St.  Louis,  Minneapolis,  St. 
Paul,  Chicago,  Cincinnati,  Cleveland,  Buffalo,  New 
Haven,  New  York,  Boston,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore, 
Atlanta,  New  Orleans,  and  Memphis. 

Rev.  Mr,  Calkins,  the  editor  of  this  volume,  has  also 
prepared  for  the  present  volume  the  Summary  of  the 
same  subject. 


II 

A  SUMMARY  OF  INVESTIGATIONS 
CONCERNING  THE  PHYSIOLOGICAL 
ASPECTS  OF  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

By  JOHN  S.  BILLINGS,  Chairman 

WITH  THE   COOPEKATION   OF  THE   BUB-COMMITTEB 


A  SUMMARY  OF  INVESTIGATIONS  CON- 
CERNING THE  PHYSIOLOGICAL  AS- 
PECTS OF  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

There  are  many  kinds  of  alcoholic  drinks 
in  use  in  different  parts  of  the  world,  but  the 
characteristic  ingredient  of  all  of  them  is 
ethyl  alcohol,  produced  by  the  fermentation 
of  starch  or  sugar.  They  are  commonly  di- 
vided into  three  classes:  (1)  wines;  (2)  malt 
liquors  ;  (3)  distilled  liquors;  to  which  may  be 
added,  (4)  root  beer  and  like  beverages  con- 
taining small  quantities  of  alcohol,  (5)  kou- 
miss and  other  preparations  made  from  milk 
by  the  fermentation  of  milk  sugar,  (6)  alco- 
holic preparations,  "  tonics,"  "  nerve  stimu- 
lants," "  aids  to  digestion,"  etc.,  sold  under 
such  names  as  bitters,  celery  compound,  malt 
extract,  and  the  like. 

The  following  table  shows  the  proportion, 
by  weight,  of  ethyl  alcohol  in  the  alcoholic 
drinks  most  used  in  the  United  States  :  — 


18  THE  LIQUOR  PKOBLEM 

Per  cent,  of  AIcoImI. 

Average.  Ran^ 

French  clarets 8.-  6-12 

French  white  wine 10.3  9-12 

German  Rhine  wines,  Moselle,  etc.     .     8.7  7-12 

Sherry 17.5  16-20 

Madeira 15.4  15-16 

Champagne 10.-  8-11 

American  champagne 8.—  6-10 

American  red  wine 9.-  6-12 

Sweet  catawba 12.-  10-15 

American  lager  beer 3.8  1-7 

Vienna  lager  beer 4.7  3-5 

Munich  lager  beer 4.8  3-5 

English  ale  and  porter 5.-  3-7 

Hard  cider 5.-  4-8 

Brandy 47.-  40-50 

"Whiskey,  American  best 43.-  41—48 

Whiskey,  American  common     .     .     .  35.-  25-43 

Whiskey,  Scotch,  Irish 40.  36-43 

Rum 60.  40-80 

Gin 30.  20-40 

Chartreuse 32. 

Absinthe 51. 

*Drake's  Plantation  Bitters  ....  27.6 
*Boker'3  Stomach  Bitters  ....  35.6 
*Paine's  Celery  Compound     ....  17.- 

*Ayer's  Sarsaparilla 21.5 

*  Hood's  Sarsaparilla 15.8 

*Greene's  Nervura 14.2 

*  Very  large  sales  of  these  are  reported. 


PHYSIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  19 

The  physiological  effects  of  moderate 
quantities  of  alcoholic  drinks  on  the  average 
adult  depend  upon  whether  they  are  taken 
before  or  after  physical  or  mental  work,  and 
upon  whether  they  are  taken  with  food  or 
not. 

Alcohol  is  a  respiratory  stimulant  of  only 
moderate  power  for  human  beings.  Highly 
flavored  wine  and  other  alcoholic  drinks 
which  contain  stimulating  ethers  have  a  more 
pronounced  stimulating  action  than  pure 
ethyl  alcohol,  and  the  stimulating  action  of 
alcohol  is  greater  in  the  case  of  fatigued 
persons  than  in  those  who  are  not  exhausted. 

The  special  effects  of  alcohol  and  alcoholic 
drinks  upon  secretion  and  digestion  may  be 
summarized  as  follows. 

When  alcoholic  fluids  are  taken  into  the 
stomach  in  not  too  large  quantities,  there  is 
first  a  direct  stimulation,  leading  to  the  rapid 
secretion  of  a  powerful  gastric  juice.  This  is 
followed  by  a  more  or  less  rapid  absorption 
of  the  alcohol,  accompanied  in  turn  by  an 
indirect  or  secondary  stimulation  of  gastric 
secretion. 

The  presence  of  alcohol  in  the  stomach 
does  not  materially  interfere  with  the  diges- 


20  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

tive  action  of  gastric  juice  when  the  content 
of  alcohol  is  less  than  five  per  cent,  of  abso- 
lute alcohol.  When,  however,  the  proportion 
of  absolute  alcohol  in  the  stomach-contents 
becomes  equal  to  ten  or  twenty  per  cent,  of 
proof  spirit,  retardation  of  gastric  digestion 
becomes  noticeable,  while  the  presence  of 
fifteen  per  cent,  of  absolute  alcohol  may  re- 
duce the  digestive  action  one  quarter  or  one 
third.  Strong  alcoholic  beverages,  such  as 
whiskey,  brandy,  rum,  and  gin,  ordinarily 
containing  from  forty  to  fifty  per  cent,  of 
alcohol,  have  an  action  upon  gastric  diges- 
tion practically  proportional  to  the  amount  of 
alcohol  present.  In  the  healthy  individual 
these  liquors  can  be  considered  to  impede 
directly  gastric  digestion  only  when  taken 
immoderately  and  in  intoxicating  doses. 

Wines  in  small  quantities  do  not  retard 
gastric  digestion,  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
appear  to  stimulate.  Larger  quantities  of 
wine,  however,  retard  gastric  digestion  some- 
times in  a  very  marked  degree.  This  retarda- 
tion is  due  in  large  measure  to  other  sub- 
stances than  the  alcohol.  This  is  likewise 
true  of  malt  liquors;  the  substances  other 
than  alcohol,  such  as  the  extractives,  exer- 


PHYSIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  21 

cising  a  very  decided  inhibitory  effect  when 
taken  in  large  quantities. 

Regarding  salivary  digestion,  alcohol  and 
alcoholic  beverages  when  taken  into  the 
mouth  produce  a  direct  stimulating  effect 
upon  the  secretion  of  saliva,  increasmg  at 
once  and  in  a  very  marked  degree  the  flow  o£ 
the  secretion.  This  acceleration,  however,  is 
of  brief  duration.  Pure  alcohol  has  no  very 
marked  influence  on  the  digestion  of  starchy 
foods  by  the  saliva.  Wines,  as  a  class,  show 
a  powerful  inhibitory  influence  upon  the  di- 
gestion of  starchy  foods  by  the  saliva,  due 
entirely  to  the  acid  properties  of  the  wines. 
Alcohol  as  used  in  small  quantities,  dieteti- 
cally,  does  not  interfere  with  pancreatic  diges- 
tion. 

Alcohol  taken  in  moderate  quantities  pro- 
duces effects  on  nutrition  similar  to  those 
produced  by  the  starches,  sugars,  and  fats  in 
ordinary  food  in  that  it  is  oxidized  in  the 
body  and  yields  energy  for  warmth,  and  pos- 
sibly for  muscular  work.  Roughly  speaking, 
four  grams  of  alcohol  will  yield  the  same 
amount  of  energy  as  seven  grams  of  sugar, 
starch,  or  protein,  or  as  three  grams  of  fat. 
The  chief  service  of  the  fats,  sugars,  and 


22  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

starches  of  ordinary  food  is  as  fuel  to  supply 
heat  and  muscular  energy.  Alcohol  in  moder- 
ate quantities  acts  in  the  same  way,  so  far  as 
heat  production  is  concerned,  and  may  be 
substituted  for  an  equivalent  quantity  of 
starch  or  sugar  to  produce  the  same  amount 
of  energy. 

All  of  the  ordinary  nutrients  in  serving  as 
fuel  protect  one  another  and  body  material 
from  consumption.  Alcohol  has  the  same 
effect.  Alcohol  may,  therefore,  be  considered 
as  a  food  for  fuel  purposes,  but  it  does  not 
contribute  to  the  building  or  repair  of  tissue 
and  is  not  a  complete  food,  that  is  to  say,  it 
cannot  alone  support  life  permanently,  al- 
though in  certain  forms  of  disease  a  person 
may  take  relatively  large  quantities  of  alco- 
hol when  he  could  not  well  tolerate  any  other 
kind  of  food,  and  thus  be  able  to  survive  a 
time  of  special  stress. 

Alcoholic  drinks  are  rarely  used  for  food 
purposes,  and  they  are  a  costly  and  undesir- 
able kind  of  food,  except  in  rare  and  special 
cases.  Even  their  moderate  use  just  before 
/  or  during  physical  or  mental  work  usually 
/  diminishes  the  total  amount  of  work  done. 
While  alcohol  in  moderate  quantities  may  act 


PHYSIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  23 

as  a  fuel  food,  in  large  quantities,  and  for 
some  persons  even  in  small  quantities,  it  acts 
as  a  poison. 

It  is  difficult  to  give  a  satisfactory  defini- 
tion of  a  poison,  for  there  is  no  substance 
which  is  always  and  everywhere  a  poison. 
The  term  is  relative ;  conditions  and  circum- 
stances of  various  kinds  must  always  enter 
into  its  conception.  No  one  would  maintain 
that  a  cup  of  delicately  flavored  tea  is  in  any 
sense  injurious  or  poisonous  to  the  average 
healthy  adult,  and  yet  caffeine,  the  active 
principle  of  this  cup  of  tea,  is  a  poison  as 
surely  as  is  alcohol.  The  term  poison  belongs 
with  equal  propriety  to  a  number  of  other 
food  accessories,  as  coffee,  pepper,  ginger, 
and  even  common  salt.  The  too  sweeping  and 
unrestricted  use  of  this  term  in  reference  to 
alcoholic  beverages  immediately  meets  with 
the  reply  that  if  alcohol  be  a  poison  it  must 
be  a  very  slow  poison,  since  many  have  used 
it  up  to  old  age  with  apparently  no  prejudicial 
effects  on  health. 

It  is  certain,  however,  that  the  excessive 
and  continued  use  of  alcoholic  drinks  tends 
to  produce  disease  and  to  shorten  life.  The 
forms  of  disease  produced  by  the  excessive 


24  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

and  continued  use  of  such  drinks  are  usually 
those  wbicli  affect  the  liver,  the  kidneys,  the 
heart,  the  blood-vessels,  and  the  nervous  sys- 
tem. Chronic  catarrhal  inflammation  of  the 
stomach  is  a  common  affection  of  persons 
using  alcohol  to  excess,  but  the  lurid  pictures 
of  the  drunkard's  stomach  given  in  certain 
popular  or  pseudo-scientific  temperance  tracts 
are  drawn  from  the  imag-ination  and  not  from 
nature.  Cirrhosis  of  the  liver,  though  not 
the  most  common,  is  the  most  characteristic 
pathological-anatomical  condition  produced 
by  alcohol,  and  probably  over  90  per  cent, 
of  the  cases  of  hepatic  cirrhosis  are  due  to 
this  cause.  It  is  the  result  especially  of  drink- 
ing strong  spirits,  being  rare  in  beer  drink- 
ers. Excessive  indulgence  in  alcoholic  liquors 
is  an  important  cause  of  chronic  Bright's  dis- 
ease, especially  of  the  small  granular  kidney. 
In  those  who  drink  large  quantities  of  beer, 
hypertrophied  and  dilated  hearts  are  com- 
paratively frequent. 

The  special  toxic  action  of  alcohol  is,  in 
the  first  instance,  upon  the  nervous  centres, 
as  is  shown  by  the  familiar  symptoms  of  a 
drunken  fit.  It  is  as  yet  impossible  to  deter- 
mine the  part  to  be  assigned  to  inherited  or 


PHYSIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  26 

acquired  constitutional  habits  of  the  body, 
chiefly  in  the  nervous  system,  in  the  causa- 
tion or  pathology  of  the  various  disorders  of 
the  nervous  system  caused  by  or  due  to  alco- 
holic excess.  It  is  important  to  know  that 
the  immoderate  drinking  of  alcoholic  liquors 
may  be  the  first  symptom  of  some  chronic 
disease  which,  when  later  recognized,  is  er- 
roneously ascribed  to  alcohol  as  the  cause. 
It  is  known  that  many  of  the  mental  and 
nervous  disorders  of  alcoholism,  attributed  to 
the  toxic  action  of  alcohol,  are,  nevertheless, 
dependent  in  a  large  measure  on  an  underly- 
ing defective  constitution,  as  an  excessive 
indulgence  in  alcohol  rarely  produces  certain 
of  these  disorders  in  persons  of  normal  con- 
stitution. Inebriety  in  tlie  parents  or  more 
remote  ancestors  ranks  among  the  more  im- 
portant causes  of  this  inherited  instability  of 
the  nervous  centres.  After  making  all  allow- 
ances for  this  share  of  inherited  or  acquired 
defects  in  the  causation  of  nervous  manifesta- 
tions of  alcoholism,  there  still  remain  many 
cases  in  which  alcoholic  poisoning  is  evi- 
dently the  cause  of  serious  disease  of  the 
brain,  spinal  cord,  and  nerves  in  persons  of 
previously  normal  constitution,  so  far  as  can 


\y 


26  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

be  ascertained.  The  excessive  use  of  absinthe 
and  other  cordials  and  liqueurs  is  particularly 
injurious  to  the  nervous  system,  for  in  these 
the  flavoring  essences,  as  well  as  the  alcohol, 
are  poisonous  to  the  nervous  system. 

One  of  the  symptoms  of  alcoholism  most 
common  in  beer  drinkers  is  obesity,  or  exces- 
sive production  of  fat,  which  may  appear  in 
situations  where  it  is  not  normally  present, 
the  most  dangerous  position  in  this  respect 
being  between  the  muscle  fibres  of  the  heart. 
The  continued  use,  in  excess,  of  the  stronger 
wines  and  of  strong  beer  or  porter  is  a  recog- 
nized cause  of  gouty  manifestations  in  those 
predisposed  to  this  disease.  A  much  larger 
number  of  the  victims  of  alcohol  die  of  some 
infectious  disease  than  of  the  special  alco- 
holic affections.  Persons  suffering  from 
chronic  alcoholism  have  their  resistance  to 
many  infectious  diseases  markedly  lowered, 
as  shown  both  by  the  increased  liability  to 
contract  such  diseases  and  by  the  greater 
severity  of  the  disease  when  it  occurs.  Phy- 
sicians generally  recognize  that  pneumonia, 
cholera,  erysipelas,  and  other  infectious  dis- 
eases in  persons  who  habitually  drink  to 
excess  are  more  serious  and  more  likely  to 


PHYSIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  27 

produce  death  than  in  others.  There  has 
been  a  common  belief  that  those  who  use  al- 
cohohc  Hquor  freely  acquire  a  certain  degree 
of  immunity  from  tuberculosis.  Alcohol,  if  it 
does  not  actually  predispose  to  tuberculosis, 
certainly  furnishes  no  protection  against  it. 
The  course  of  tuberculous  disease  in  alcoholic 
patients  is  often  more  rapid  than  usual. 

The  common  idea  that  a  large-  part  of  the 
injury  to  health  due  to  the  use  of  alcoholic 
drinks  is  caused  by  injurious  substances  such 
as  fusel  oil  and  furfurol,  which  have  not 
been  properly  removed,  or  by  substances 
added  as  direct  adulterants,  is  erroneous,  as 
is  also  the  common  notion  that  cheap  liquors 
contain  large  quantities  of  such  harmful 
ingredients.  The  injurious  effects  of  the 
amount  of  fusel  oil  present  in  ordinary  sa- 
loon liquors  are  trifling  in  comparison  with 
the  effects  of  ethyl  alcohol  contained  in 
them,  and  the  principal  adulterants  in  the 
cheap  whiskeys  are  water  and  caramel,  a 
harmless  coloring  matter  made  from  sugar. 

The  general  conclusion  is  that  fine  old 
whiskeys  and  brandies  are  nearly  as  likely  to 
produce  ill  effects  as  the  cheaper  varieties  of 
the  present  time,  if  taken  in  the  same  quan- 


28  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

tity,  and  in  general  the  injurious  effect  is  in 
proportion  to  the  ethyl  alcohol  contained, 
which  seems  to  be  the  chief  reason  why  wine 
and  beer  are  less  injurious  than  distilled 
liquors. 

The  injurious  impurities  and  by-products 
of  alcoholic  drinks  may  be  excluded  alto- 
gether as  a  cause  of  alcoholism,  for  no  mat- 
ter how  high  the  toxic  influence  of  these 
may  be,  it  is  plain  that  their  role  in  causing 
the  lesions  of  alcoholism  is  one  of  secondary 
imj)ortance. 
y"  When  alcoholic  drinks  are  used  only  occa- 

sionally, or  in  moderate  quantities  daily  with 
meals,  the  effects  in  man  differ  greatly  in 
different  individuals,  depending  on  constitu- 
tional peculiarities,  age,  occupation,  climate, 
etc.,  and  they  also  differ  greatly  in  animals, 
as  shown  by  experiment. 

An  extended  and  prolonged  series  of  ex- 
periments to  determine  the  effects  upon  rab- 
bits of  long-continued  use  of  alcohol,  made 
for  the  Committee  of  Fifty  by  Dr.  Frieden- 
wald,  showed  that  the  young  and  smaller 
animals  were  the  most  susceptible.  Some 
individuals  seemed  capable  of  tolerating  daily 
intoxicating  doses  of  alcohol  for  an  indefinite 


PHYSIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  29 

period.  One  rabbit  wa^  given  alcohol  for 
over  four  years  without  permanent  ill  effects  ; 
others  were  fed  with  alcohol  for  three  and  a 
half  and  for  three  years.  On  the  other  hand, 
some  of  the  animals  died  of  acute  intoxi- 
cation after  a  few  doses,  and  the  majority 
succumbed  after  a  shorter  or  longer  period  of 
time  with  gradual  loss  of  weight  and  exhaus- 
tion. 

The  ultimate  effects  upon  man  of  the  mod- 
erate use  of  alcoholic  drinks  cannot  be  ascer- 
tained with  much  accuracy  for  short  periods 
of  time.  We  have  no  trustworthy  data  as  to 
the  proportion  of  total  abstainers,  occasional 
drinkers,  regular  moderate  drinkers,  and  pos- 
itively intemperate  persons  in  the  United 
States.  From  such  information  as  we  have, 
it  seems  probable  that  of  the  adult  males  in 
this  country  not  more  than  20  per  cent,  are 
total  abstainers,  and  not  more  than  5  per 
cent,  are  positively  intemperate  in  the  sense 
that  they  drink  to  such  excess  as  to  cause 
evident  injury  to  health.  Of  the  remaining 
75  per  cent.,  the  majority,  probably  at  least 
50  per  cent,  of  the  whole,  are  occasional 
drinkers,  while  the  remaining  25  per  cent, 
might,  perhaps,  be  classed  as  regular  mod- 


30  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

erate  drinkers.  In  the  majority  of  these  occa- 
sional drinkers  and  in  many  of  the  regular 
immoderate  drinkers,  such  as  those  whose 
drinking  is  limited  to  one  or  two  glasses  of 
wine  at  dinner  or  of  beer  at  the  end  of  the 
day,  no  especial  efPect  upon  the  health  seems 
to  be  observed  either  by  themselves  or  by 
their  physicians. 

An  inquiry  into  the  use  of  alcoholic  drinks 
among  brain  workers  in  the  United  States, 
including  the  leading  members  of  the  legal, 
medical,  and  clerical  professions,  distinguished 
scientific  men  and  educators,  managers  of 
great  corporations,  etc.,  indicates  that  the 
percentage  of  total  abstainers,  out  of  892 
replies,  was  18  per  cent. ;  being  1.4  for  phy- 
sicians ;  7.3  for  lawyers ;  19.2  for  business 
men  ;  21.4  for  professors  and  teachers  ;  and 
54.0  for  clergymen.  Of  occasional  drinkers, 
the  percentage  was  64.9 ;  being  for  physi- 
cians, 83.4 ;  for  lawyers,  71.6 ;  for  business 
men,  53.7  ;  for  professors  and  teachers,  67.4  ; 
for  clergymen,  43.4.  Of  regular  moderate 
drinkers,  the  percentage  was  16.3 ;  being 
for  physicians,  15.1;  for  lawyers,  21.1  ;  for 
business  men,  26.5  ;  for  professors  and  teach- 
ers,   10.6 ;    and   for   clergymen,   2.6.     The 


PHYSIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  31 

remarks  of  persons  furnishing  the  reports 
from  which  these  statements  are  derived  are 
in  many  cases  interesting.  They  represent 
all  shades  of  opinion,  but  in  general  agree 
that  the  use  of  alcoholic  drinks  as  a  stimulus 
to  mental  effort  gives  bad  results,  although 
they  may  be  agreeable  as  restoratives  in 
fatigue. 

The  regular  moderate  drinkers  use  mainly 
light  wines ;  the  occasional  drinkers  chiefly 
whiskey  and  beer. 

Men  use  alcoholic  drinks  mainly  because 
of  their  effect  on  mental  action,  and  especially 
upon  the  emotional  faculties.  The  taste  and 
odor  of  the  drink,  its  stimulating  action  on 
the  digestive  tract,  the  circulation,  etc.,  are 
minor  considerations  affecting  the  preference 
for  particular  forms  of  drink.  Sometimes  the 
use  of  such  drinks  is  due  to  a  special  desire 
to  increase  intensity  of  consciousness,  — 
more  often  it  is  due  to  a  desire  for  the  seda- 
tive and  quieting  action  which  wine  or  beer, 
taken  with  dinner  at  the  end  of  the  day's 
work,  exert  upon  mental  tension  or  sensa- 
tions of  bodily  fatigue. 

Very  often  such  drinks  are  used  merely  as 
an  incident  in  social  life  j  there  is  no  special 


32  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

desire  for  them,  but  it  is  less  troublesome  to 
accept  them  than  to  refuse  them.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  craving  for  such  drinks  is 
sometimes  due  to  abnormity  or  disease  of  the 
nervous  system,  and  this  is  especially  the 
case  when  such  craving  is  paroxysmal,  that 
is,  occurring  only  at  intervals  of  weeks  or 
months. 

The  question  as  to  the  amount  of  alcoholic 
drinks  which  can  be  used  freely  by  the  aver- 
age adult  without  producing  bad  results  is  a 
difficult  one,  because  individuals  differ  greatly 
in  their  susceptibilities  to  injurious  effects 
from  such  drinks.  It  seems  probable  that 
there  is  such  an  average  permissible  quantity 
of  alcohol,  the  minimum  estimate  of  which 
is  a  glass  of  wine  or  a  pint  of  beer  in  the 
twenty-four  hours.  The  English  standard,  as 
formulated  by  Anstie,  is  the  equivalent  of 
one  and  one  half  (1|^)  ounces  of  absolute 
alcohol  per  day,  or  about  three  ounces  of 
whiskey,  or  half  a  bottle  of  claret  or  Rhine 
wine,  or  four  glasses  of  beer,  it  being  under- 
stood that  this  is  to  be  taken  only  at  lunch 
and  dinner,  and  that  the  whiskey  is  to  be 
well  diluted. 

At  least  one  third  of  an  ounce  of  alcohol, 


PHYSIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  33 

diluted  to  ten  per  cent.,  must  be  taken  before 
any  departure  from  the  normal  course  can 
be  detected  in  the  average  adult,  and  while 
the  effects  vary  with  the  dose,  it  has  yet  to 
be  shown  that  harm  is  done  when  the  dose  is 
less  than  that  required  to  produce  an  effect 
in  psychological  and  physiological  tests  of 
divergence  from  the  normal. 

If  all  substances  known  to  be  injurious 
in  large  doses  are  to  be  entirely  given  up 
on  the  assumption  that  small  doses  are  also 
injurious,  then  all  condiments  and  spices 
must  be  removed  from  our  tables.  Even 
sugar  in  concentrated  solution  is  a  powerful 
cell  poison.  Certain  poisons  are  normally 
present  in  our  tissues  in  such  quantities  that 
they  subserve  no  harmful  but  rather  a  bene- 
ficial purpose.  Such  are  the  active  principles 
of  the  thyroid  gland  and  of  the  suprarenal 
capsules,  both  of  which  are  far  more  power- 
ful poisons  than  alcohol ;  that  is,  their  lethal 
dose  is  several  hundred  times  smaller. 

There  are  good  grounds  for  believing  that 
alcohol  itself  is  always  being  produced  in  small 
quantities  in  the  course  of  bacterial  fermenta- 
tion in  the  intestinal  canal,  that  it  is,  in  fact, 
normally  present  in  the  healthy  organism. 


34  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

In  tlie  table  given  above,  showing  the  pro- 
portion of  alcohol  present  in  certain  drinks, 
there  are  included  a  few  of  the  so-called  patent 
medicines  which  have  a  large  sale  in  the  New 
England  States.  A  much  more  extended  table 
of  these  drinks  is  given  in  an  appendix  to  the 
report  of  the  sub-committee  on  the  physio- 
logical aspects  of  the  liquor  problem,  vol.  ii, 
pages  346-347.  It  will  be  seen  that  some  of 
p  these  drinks,  under  the  names  of  bitters,  cel- 
ery compound,  sarsaparilla,  etc.,  contain  a 
(^  greater  percentage  of  alcohol  than  ordinary 
wines  and  beers  and  are  consumed  in  quan- 
tities so  large  that  they  must  be  classified  as 
beverages  rather  than  as  medicines,  under 
which  name  they  are  commonly  sold.  As  an 
example,  it  may  be  stated  that  300,000  bottles 
of  Ayer's  Sarsaparilla  are  sold  annually  in 
Massachusetts,  and  as  this  contains  21.5  per 
cent,  of  alcohol,  by  weight,  it  is  clear  that 
many  people  are  partaking  pretty  freely  of  an 
alcoholic  drink  without,  perhaps,  being  aware 
of  it. 

The  sale  of  these  beverages  is  greater  in 

those  States  having  prohibitory  liquor  laws 

than  in  those  not  having  them,  and  their  pop- 

\  ularity  is  due  almost  entirely  to  the  stimulat- 


PHYSIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  35 

ing  effects  of  the  alcohol  which  they  contain. 
They  are  not  used  for  social  purposes. 

In  view  of  what  is  known  as  to  the  effects 
of  the  moderate  or  occasional  use  of  alcoholic 
drinks  upon  man,  much  of  the  methods  and 
substance  of  the  so-called  scientific  temper- 
ance instruction  in  the  public  schools  is  un- 
scientific and  undesirable.  It  is  not  in  accord 
with  the  opinions  of  a  large  majority  of  the 
leading  physiologists  of  Europe  as  shown  by 
the  statement  printed  on  page  18,  volume  i,  of 
the  report  on  the  Physiological  Aspects  of  the 
Liquor  Problem.  This  appears  to  us  to  be  a 
matter  of  grave  importance. 

It  is  not  desirable  to  attempt  to  give  sys- 
tematic instruction  to  all  children  in  the  pri- 
mary schools  on  the  subject  of  the  action  of 
alcohol  or  of  alcoholic  drinks.  To  older  chil- 
dren, and  especially  those  in  the  high  schools, 
it  does  seem  proper  that  instruction  should  be 
given  as  to  the  principal  facts  known  about 
the  use  and  effects  of  alcoholic  drinks,  the 
sociological  and  especially  the  ethical  rela- 
tions of  the  subject,  the  means  which  have 
been  tried  to  prevent  the  evils  resulting  from 
alcoholism,  —  and  the  results,  —  the  object 
being  to  enable  them  to  form  an  intelligent 


■^ 


36  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

opinion  upon  the  whole  subject,  especially  to 
distinguish  between  mere  assertions  and  sci- 
entific evidence. 

This  teaching  should  not  be  made  a  special, 
isolated  matter,  but  should  be  a  part  of  some 
elementary  instruction  in  physiology  and  hy- 
giene, and  all  that  is  really  useful  and  desir- 
able can  be  given  in  a  brief  time,  equivalent 
to  a  few  lessons,  following  the  lessons  on  food, 
and  in  this  connection  the  fact  should  be 
emphasized  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  in- 
temperance in  food  as  well  as  in  drink,  the 
former  not  infrequently  leading  to  the  latter. 
In  these  lessons  might  be  taught  what  the 
ordinary  alcoholic  drinks  are,  and  of  what 
and  how  they  are  made,  the  difference  be- 
tween simple  fermented  drinks,  like  beer  and 
wine,  and  distilled  liquor,  such  as  whiskey, 
the  nature  of  the  so-called  "  temperance 
drinks,"  and  the  general  effects  of  alcohol  as 
a  stimulant  and  as  a  narcotic.  It  might  be 
taught  that  while  in  moderate  quantities  beer 
and  wine  may  be,  in  a  certain  sense,  a  food, 
they  are  a  very  imperfect  and  expensive  kind 
of  food,  and  are  seldom  used  for  food  pur- 
poses ;  that  they  are  not  needed  by  young  and 
healthy  persons,  and  are  dangerous  to  them 


PHYSIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  37 

in  SO  far  as  they  tend  to  create  a  habit ;  that 
in  certain  cases  of  disease  and  weakness  they 
are  useful  in  quantities  to  be  prescribed  by 
physicians ;  that  when  taken  habitually  it 
should  be  only  at  meals,  and,  as  a  rule,  only 
with  the  last  meal  of  the  day,  or  soon  after 
it,  and  that  alcoholic  drinks  of  all  kinds  are 
worse  than  useless  to  prevent  fatigue  or  the 
effects  of  cold,  although  they  may  at  times 
be  useful  as  restoratives  after  the  work  is 
done. 

It  should  also  be  taught  that  alcoholic 
drinks  are  almost  always  a  useless  expense, 
that  their  use  in  excess  is  the  cause  of  much 
disease,  suffering,  and  poverty,  and  of  many 
crimes ;  but  that  such  use  is  sometimes  the 
result,  rather  than  the  cause,  of  disease. 

It  should  not  be  taught  that  the  drinking 
of  one  or  two  glasses  of  beer  or  wine  by  a 
grown-up  person  is  very  dangerous,  for  it  is 
not  true,  and  many  of  the  children  know  by 
their  own  home  experience  that  it  is  not  true. 

In  looking  at  the  liquor  problem  from  an 
educational  point  of  view,  one  is  impressed 
with  the  fact  that  many  of  those  who  are 
seeking  to  reform  the  drinking  habits  of  the 
community    by    educational    methods   have 


t«^; 


20v'88V 


38  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

failed  to  grasp  the  true  educational  nature  o£ 
the  temperance  movement,  a  movement  which, 
to  be  of  permanent  value,  must  be  based 
upon  a  strengthening  and  upbuilding  of  the 
character  of  the  individual,  and  not  upon 
the  amount  and  nature  of  the  information 
imparted  with  regard  to  the  physiological 
action  of  alcohol.  With  the  terrible  effects 
of  the  abuse  of  alcoholic  drinks  constantly 
before  one's  eyes,  it  is  of  comparatively 
Httle  importance  what  one  believes  about  the 
physiological  action  of  alcohol  on  digestion 
or  on  heat  production.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  presence  in  every  community  of  a  large 
number  of  healthy  and  vigorous  individuals 
for  whom  a  small  amount  of  alcohol  forms 
a  portion  of  their  daily  diet  makes  it  impos- 
sible to  take  seriously  the  statements,  too 
frequently  made,  as  to  the  danger  of  indul- 
ging in  a  single  glass  of  wine  or  beer. 

No  one  can  doubt  that  the  abuse  of  alcohol 
constitutes  a  threat  to  our  civilization,  and 
that  the  history  of  mankind  would  have  been 
very  differently  recorded  had  it  been  possible 
to  eliminate  all  the  crime,  misery,  and  disease 
directly  or  indirectly  traceable  to  alcoholic 
excess.    It  is  no  wonder,  then,  if  thoughtful 


PHYSIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  39 

people,  the  world  over,  are  engaged  in 
vigorously  combating  this  terrible  social  evil. 
Among  the  various  agencies  employed  in 
conducting  this  campaign,  the  education  of 
school  children  is,  in  this  country,  the  one  to 
"which  those  engaged  in  the  total  abstinence 
propaganda  have  attached  especial  importance. 
In  nearly  all  the  States  and  Territories  of  the 
Union  instruction  in  the  physiological  action  of 
alcohol  has  been  made  compulsory,  and,  where 
text-books  are  used,  they  are  usually  made  to 
accord  with  extreme  total  abstinence  views. 
They  are,  moreover,  often  openly  "  indorsed 
and  approved  "  by  a  well-known  powerful  total 
abstinence  society.  So  powerful  has  been  the 
pressure  which  this  organization  has  been  able 
to  exert  upon  school  committees  that  pub- 
lishers often  find  it  difficult  to  sell  text-books 
which  are  not  thus  indorsed. 

With  regard  to  these  educational  methods, 
it  is  important  to  observe  that  they  receive 
little  or  no  support  from  the  members  of  the 
medical  profession,  who  by  their  training  are 
especially  qualified  to  judge  of  the  accuracy 
and  value  of  the  statements  as  to  the  physio- 
logical action  of  alcohol  which  form  the  im- 
portant features  of  the  text-books  in  question. 


) 


40  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

Of  tbe  practical  results  of  such  instruction 
the  teachers  themselves  are,  of  course,  the 
best  judges,  and,  as  far  as  they  have  been 
consulted,  the  weight  of  their  testimony  is 
emphatically  opposed  to  the  so-called  "Sci- 
entific Temperance  Instruction  "  as  now  given 
in  our  schools. 

Now  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  jDhysi- 
cians  and  teachers  are  as  anxious  to  check 
the  evils  of  intemperance  as  are  the  most 
strenuous  advocates  of  total  abstinence,  and 
it  is,  therefore,  highly  important  to  discover, 
if  possible,  some  common  ground  upon  which 
they  and  all  other  educated  and  intelligent 
people  may  take  their  stand  in  working  out 
an  educational  scheme  relating  to  the  physio- 
logical action  of  alcohol.  The  above  attempt 
to  outline  such  a  scheme  is  commended  to 
the  thoughtful  consideration  of  those  leaders 
of  the  temperance  movement  who  desire  to 
cooperate  with  the  representatives  of  profes- 
sional opinion  in  physiology  and  pedagogy. 
With  cordial  cooperation  on  the  part  of  all 
who  honestly  desire  to  combat  the  evils  of 
intemperance  and  are  willing  to  recognize  the 
fact  that  many  articles  on  our  dietaries  (in- 
cluding alcohol)  may  under  certain  circum- 


PHYSIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  41 

stances  have  a  nutritive  value  and  under 
other  circumstances  a  poisonous  effect,  and 
that  these  results  may  be  combined  in  vary- 
ing proportions,  there  should  be  no  difficulty 
in  coming  to  an  understanding  as  to  the  main 
features  of  an  educational  scheme  which 
might  well  take  as  its  motto  the  words  of 
the  Chinese  proverb,  "  Intoxication  is  not  the 
wine's  fault,  but  the  man's."  ^ 

While  the  regular  moderate  use  of  alco- 
holic drinks  taken  only  with  food  at  the  end 
of  the  day  may  produce  little  or  no  effect  on 
the  health  of  the  average  adult,  such  mod- 
erate use  by  young  persons  often  leads  to 
excess,  and  the  cases  in  which  such  use  is 
beneficial  are  exceptional. 

In  general,  the  habitual  use  of  alcoholic 
drinks  is  undesirable,  and  the  increasing 
knowledge  of  this  fact  has  led  to  a  marked 
diminution  of  such  use  in  this  country  among 
educated  people.  In  all  occupations  where 
keen  senses,  sharp  attention,  or  great  concen- 
tration of  the  mind  are  called  for,  alcohol  in 
any  form  or  amount  is  injurious  when  taken 
durmg  the  performance  of  duty  in  hand.   He 

*  A  Collection   of  Chinese  Proverbs    (No.  1005).    Wm. 
Scarborough,  Shanghai,  1875.  Triibner  &  Co.,  London. 


i^ 


42  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

who  has  mental  labor  of  a  certain  kind  to 
perform,  and  he  upon  whom  great  responsi- 
bilities devolve,  is  forced,  if  he  would  be  at 
his  best,  to  use  alcohol  as  a  restorative  only 
at  the  proper  season.  Alcohol  gives  no  per- 
sistent increase  of  muscular  power.  It  is  well 
understood  by  all  who  control  large  bodies  of 
men  engaged  in  physical  labor  that  alcohol 
and  effective  work  are  incompatible. 

The  formation  of  the  drink-habit  commen- 
cing with  occasional  and  moderate  habitual 
use  almost  always  occurs  before  the  age  of 
thirty-five,  and  there  is  very  little  danger 
of  its  occurrence  after  the  age  of  fifty. 


in 

A  SUMMARY  OF  INVESTIGATIONS 
CONCERNING  THE  LEGISLATIVE  AS- 
PECTS OP  THE    LIQUOR    PROBLEM 

By  CHARLES  W.  ELIOT 

CHAIRMAN   OF  THE   SUB-COMMITTEB 


A  SUMMARY  OF  INVESTIGATIONS  CON- 
CERNING THE  LEGISLATIVE  ASPECTS 
OF  THE   LIQUOR  PROBLEM. 

In  April,  1894,  the  Sub-committee  on  the  Le- 
gislative Aspects  of  the  Drink  Problem,  con- 
sisting of  Charles  W.  Eliot,  Seth  Low,  and 
James  C.  Carter,  engaged  Dr.  Frederic  H. 
Wines  of  Springfield,  Ilhnois,  and  Mr.  John 
Koren  of  Boston,  Massachusetts,  to  investi- 
gate the  working  of  the  liquor  legislation  in 
several  states  of  the  Union  in  which  that  legis- 
lation, or  its  history,  has  been  characteristic 
or  especially  instructive. 

Mr.  Koren  worked  for  the  sub-committee 
nearly  seventeen  months  (May,  1894:-October, 
1895),  studying  on  the  spot  the  prohibition 
legislation  of  Maine,  the  local-option  law  in 
Massachusetts,  the  license  law  in  Pennsylva- 
nia, and  the  dispensary  law  in  South  Carolina. 
Dr.  Wines  devoted  nine  months  of  his  time 
between  August  1,  1894,  and  September 
1,  1895,  to  studies  of  the  working  of  the 
Missouri  liquor  law  in  St.  Louis,  of  the  his- 


46  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

tory  and  operation  of  the  Iowa  legislation,  of 
the  Ohio  mulct  law,  and  of  the  liquor  legis- 
lation in  Indiana. 

The  reports  made  by  Dr.  Wines  and  Mr. 
Koren  were  published  by  the  Committee  of 
Fifty  in  a  volume  issued  in  1897.  In  an  in- 
troduction to  that  volume  the  sub-committee 
described  the  investigations  and  summarized 
their  results  as  follows :  — 

These  investigations  cover  eight  different 
kinds  of  liquor  legislation.  They  are  not 
complete  statistical  inquiries,  for  the  reason 
that  it  is  impossible,  with  any  resources  at 
the  command  of  the  Committee  of  Fifty,  to 
obtain  satisfactory  statistics  on  this  subject 
for  any  State  of  the  Union.  It  would  re- 
quire the  authority  of  the  general  govern- 
ment and  an  immense  expenditure  to  make 
an  exhaustive  statistical  inquiry  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  consumption  of  alcoholic  drinks ; 
and  it  is  very  doubtful  if  even  the  national 
government  could  obtain  all  the  important 
facts  on  this  most  difficult  topic.  The  consid- 
erable consumption  of  alcohol  for  medicinal 
and  industrial  purposes  masks  the  consump- 
tion for  drinking  purposes.  The  amount  of 
alcohol   produced  in  the  country  gives,  of 


LEGISLATIVE  ASPECTS  47 

course,  no  clew  to  the  amount  consumed  as 
drink  in  any  single  State.    The  internal  reve- 
nue laws  of  the  United  States  and  the  freedom 
of  interstate  commerce  complicate  the  whole 
situation.    Neither  have  the  researches  of  Dr. 
Wines  and  Mr.  Koren  resulted  in  complete 
statistical  statements  of  the  number  of  arrests 
for  drunkenness,  or  for  drunkenness  and  dis- 
orderly conduct,  or  of  the  number  of  crimes 
attributable  to  alcohol.   Indeed,  one  of  the 
results  of  their  investigations  is  that  no  secure 
conclusions  can  be  based  on  any  such  statis- 
tics now  in  existence,  so  much  are  the  acces- 
sible statistics  affected  by  temporary,  local, 
and  shifting  conditions.    Nevertheless,  these 
reports  give  a  trustworthy  account  of  the 
legislation  in  each  State  dealt  with,  and  of 
the  efforts  made  in  the  several  States  to  en- 
force the  laws  enacted  ;  and  they  give  some 
indications  of  the  success  or  non-success  in 
promoting  temperance  of  the  various  kinds 
of    legislation    described.     They   inevitably 
deal,  also,  with  the  social  and  political  effects 
of  the  various   sorts   of   liquor   legislation. 
Within  these  limits,  they  are  believed  by  the 
sub-committee   to   be   accurate    and   impai*- 
tial. 


48  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

The  reports  relate  to  communities  wliich 
differ  widely  in  character.  Some  relate  to 
compact  and  some  to  scattered  populations ; 
some  to  people  most  of  whom  are  native-born, 
and  some  to  communities  in  which  there  is  a 
large  admixture  of  foreign-born  persons.  The 
principal  occupations  in  the  States  examined 
differ  widely.  Boston,  Philadelphia,  and  St. 
Louis  contain  chiefly  a  manufacturing  and 
trading  population,  while  the  population  of 
South  Carolina  and  Iowa  is  in  the  main  agri- 
cultural. 

The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  researches  of 
this  kind  are  enormous.  In  matters  which 
affect  private  character,  truthful  reports  are 
proverbially  hard  to  obtain.  The  accessible 
statistics  are  incomplete  or  inaccurate,  or 
both.  The  effects  of  intemperance  in  pro- 
moting vice  and  crime  are  often  mixed  with 
the  effects  of  many  other  causes,  such  as  un- 
healthy occupations,  bad  lodgings,  poor  food, 
and  inherited  disabilities ;  and  it  is  very  dif- 
ficult to  disentangle  intemperance  as  a  cause 
from  other  causes  of  vice,  crime,  and  pauper- 
ism. At  every  point  connected  with  these 
investigations  the  studious  observer  encoun- 
ters an  intense  partisanship  which  blinds  the 


LEGISLATIVE  ASPECTS  49 

eyes  o£  witnesses  and  obscures  the  judgment 
of  writers  and  speakers  on  the  subject. 

The  reports  deal  with  some  communities  in 
which  the  local  sentiment  has  been  in  favor 
of  the  enforcement  of  restrictive  laws,  and 
with  others  in  which  the  sentiment  has  been 
adverse  to  such  enforcement.  On  the  whole, 
they  embrace  a  sufficient  variety  of  legislative 
enactments,  and  a  sufficient  variety  of  expe- 
rience with  these  enactments,  in  communities 
of  various  quality,  to  make  the  conclusions 
to  be  drawn  from  them  widely  interesting 
and  instructive.  Taken  together,  they  cer- 
tainly present  a  vivid  picture  of  the  difficul- 
ties of  such  inquiries,  and  give  effective 
warning  against  the  easy  acceptance  of 
partial  or  partisan  statements  on  the  sub- 
ject. 

From  the  eight  reports  thus  obtained,  the 
sub-committee  derive  the  following  statement 
of  results  and  inferences,  which  omit  all 
reference  to  similar  legislation  and  experience 
in  other  States,  and  make  no  pretension  to 
any  exhaustive  or  universal  character.  It  is 
evident  that  methods  which  succeed  in  one 
place  do  not  necessarily  succeed  in  another. 
Moreover,  none  of  the  eight  reports  deals 


50  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

with  the  question  under  European  or  cosmo- 
politan conditions. 

The  results  of  the  investigation  and  the 
inferences  from  it  which  the  sub-committee 
laid  before  the  Committee  of  Fifty  include 
a  consideration  of  prohibition,  its  successes, 
its  failures,  its  concomitant  evils,  and  its  dis- 
puted effects ;  local  option ;  the  systems  of 
licenses ;  licensing  authorities ;  restrictions 
on  the  sale  of  liquors ;  druggists'  Hcenses ; 
and  the  effect  of  liquor  legislation  on  politics. 

Prohibition. 

Prohibitory  legislation  has  succeeded  in 
aboHshing  and  preventing  the  manufacture 
on  a  large  scale  of  distilled  and  malt  liquors 
within  the  areas  covered  by  it.  In  districts 
where  public  sentiment  has  been  strongly  in 
its  favor  it  has  made  it  hard  to  obtain  intox- 
icants, thereby  removing  temptation  from  the 
young  and  from  persons  disposed  to  alco- 
holic excesses.  In  pursuing  its  main  object, 
—  which  is  to  make  the  manufacture  and  sale 
of  intoxicants,  first,  impossible,  or,  secondly, 
disrejiutable  if  possible,  —  it  has  incidentally 
promoted  the  invention  and  adoption  of  many 
useful  restrictions  on  the  liquor  traffic. 


LEGISLATIVE  ASPECTS  61 

But  prohibitory  legislation  has  failed  to 
exclude  intoxicants  completely  even  from 
districts  where  public  sentiment  has  been 
favorable.  In  districts  where  public  senti- 
ment has  been  adverse  or  strongly  divided, 
the  traffic  in  alcoholic  beverages  has  been 
sometimes  repressed  or  harassed,  but  never 
exterminated  or  rendered  unprofitable.  In 
Maine  and  Iowa  there  have  always  been 
counties  and  municipalities  in  complete  and 
successful  rebeUion  against  the  law.  The 
incidental  difficulties  created  by  the  United 
States  revenue  laws,  the  industrial  and  medi- 
cinal demand  for  alcohol,  and  the  freedom 
of  interstate  commerce  have  never  been  over- 
come. Prohibition  has,  of  course,  failed  to 
subdue  the  drinking  passion,  which  will  for- 
ever prompt  resistance  to  all  restrictive  legis- 
lation. 

There  have  been  concomitant  evils  of  pro- 
hibitory legislation.  The  efforts  to  enforce 
it  during  forty  years  past  have  had  some 
unlooked-for  effects  on  public  respect  for 
courts,  judicial  procedure,  oaths,  and  law  in 
general,  and  for  officers  of  the  law,  legis- 
lators, and  public  servants.  The  public  have 
seen  law  defied,  a  whole  generation  of  habit- 


52  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

ual  law-breakers  schooled  in  evasion  and 
shamelessness,  courts  ineffective  through  fluc- 
tuations of  policy,  delays,  perjuries,  negli- 
gencies,  and  other  miscarriages  of  justice, 
of&cers  of  the  law  double-faced  and  merce- 
nary, legislators  timid  and  insincere,  candi- 
dates for  office  hypocritical  and  truckhng, 
and  office-holders  unfaithful  to  pledges  and 
to  reasonable  public  expectation.  Through 
an  agitation  which  has  always  had  a  moral 
end,  these  immoralities  have  been  developed 
and  made  conspicuous.  The  hquor  traffic, 
being  very  profitable,  has  been  able,  when 
attacked  by  prohibitory  legislation,  to  pay 
fines,  bribes,  hush-money,  and  assessments 
for  political  purposes  to  large  amounts.  This 
money  has  tended  to  corrupt  the  lower  courts, 
the  police  administration,  political  organiza- 
tions, and  even  the  electorate  itself.  Where- 
ever  the  voting  force  of  the  liquor  traffic  and 
its  alhes  is  considerable,  candidates  for  office 
and  office-holders  are  tempted  to  serve  a 
dangerous  trade  interest,  which  is  often  in 
antagonism  to  the  pubHc  interest.  Frequent 
yielding  to  this  temptation  causes  general 
degeneration  in  public  life,  breeds  contempt 
for  the  public  service,  and  of  course  makes 


LEGISLATIVE  ASPECTS  53 

the  service  less  desirable  for  upright  men. 
Again,  the  sight  of  justices,  constables,  and 
informers  enforcing  a  prohibitory  law  far 
enough  to  get  from  it  the  fines  and  fees 
which  profit  them,  but  not  far  enough  to 
extingfuish  the  traffic  and  so  cut  off  the  source 
of  their  profits,  is  demoralizing  to  society  at 
large.  All  legislation  intended  to  put  restric- 
tions on  the  liquor  traffic,  except  perhaps  the 
simple  tax,  is  more  or  less  liable  to  these  ob- 
jections ;  but  the  prohibitory  legislation  is 
the  worst  of  all  in  these  respects,  because  it 
stimulates  to  the  utmost  the  resistance  of  the 
liquor-dealers  and  their  supporters. 

Of  course  there  are  disputed  effects  of 
efforts  at  prohibition.  Whether  it  has  or  has 
not  reduced  the  consumption  of  intoxicants 
and  diminished  drunkenness  is  a  matter  of 
opinion,  and  opinions  differ  widely.  No  dem- 
onstration on  either  of  these  points  has  been 
reached,  or  is  now  attainable,  after  more  than 
forty  years  of  observation  and  experience. 

Local  Option. 

Experience  with  prohibitory  legislation  has 
brought  into  clear  relief  the  fact  that  sump- 
tuary legislation  which  is  not  supported  by 


^ 


\ 


54  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

local  public  sentiment  is  apt  to  prove  locally 
impotent,  or  worse.  On  this  fact  are  based 
the  numerous  kinds  of  liquor  legislation 
Tvhich  may  be  grouped  under  the  name  of 
local  option. 

In  the  legislation  of  the  eight  States 
studied,  five  forms  of  local  option  occur :  In 
Massachusetts,  a  vote  is  taken  every  year  at 
the  regular  election  in  every  city  and  town  on 
the  question,  Shall  licenses  be  granted  ?  and 
the  determination  by  the  majority  of  voters 
lasts  one  year.  In  Missouri,  a  vote  may  be 
taken  at  any  time  (but  not  within  sixty  days 
of  any  state  or  municipal  election)  on  demand 
of  one  tenth  of  the  qualified  electors,  town  or 
city  voters  having  no  county  vote  and  vice 
versa,  and  the  vote  being  taken  not  oftener 
than  once  in  four  years ;  but  in  counties  or 
municipalities  which  have  voted  for  license, 
no  saloon  can  be  licensed  unless  the  majority 
of  the  property-holders  in  the  block  or  square 
in  which  the  saloon  is  to  be  situated  sign  a 
petition  that  the  license  be  issued.  In  South 
Carolina,  every  application  for  the  position  of 
county  dispenser  must  be  accompanied  by  a 
petition  in  favor  of  the  apphcant  signed  by 
a  majority  of  the  freeholders  of  the  incorpo- 


LEGISLATIVE  ASPECTS  55 

rated  place  in  which  the  dispensary  is  to  be 
situated ;  and  more  than  one  dispensary  may 
be  estabHshed  for  each  county,  but  not 
against  a  majority  vote  (operative  for  two 
years)  in  the  township  in  which  the  dispen- 
sary is  to  be  placed.  In  Ohio,  local  prohibi- 
tion is  permitted,  the  vote  being  taken  at  a 
special  election  on  the  demand  of  one  fourth 
of  the  qualified  electors  in  any  township.  In, 
Indiana  (law  of  1895),  a  majority  of  the 
legal  voters  in  any  township  or  ward  of  a  city 
may  remonstrate  against  licensing  a  specified 
applicant,  and  the  remonstrance  voids  any 
license  which  may  be  issued  to  him  within 
ten  years. 

The  main  advantage  of  local  option  is  that 
the  same  public  opinion  which  determines  the 
question  of  license  or  no-license  is  at  the 
back  of  all  the  local  officials  who  administer 
the  system  decided  on.  The  Missouri  provi- 
sions seem  to  be  the  completest  and  justest 
of  all.  One  year  being  too  short  a  period 
for  a  fair  trial  of  either  license  or  no-license, 
Massachusetts  towns  and  cities  have  to  jruard 
themselves  against  a  fickleness  from  which 
the  law  might  protect  them.  Under  local 
option,  many  persons  who  are  not  prohibi- 


56  THE  LIQUOR  TROBLEM 

tionists  habitually  vote  for  no-license  in  the 
place  where  they  live,  or  where  their  business 
is  carried  on.  Persons  who  object  to  pubHc 
bars,  although  they  use  alcoholic  drinks  them- 
selves, may  also  support  a  local  no-license 
system.  By  forethought,  such  persons  can 
get  their  own  supplies  from  neighboring 
places  where  license  prevails.  If  their  sup- 
plies should  be  cut  off,  they  might  vote  dif- 
ferently. There  has  been  no  spread  of  the 
I  /  no-Hcense  policy  in  Massachusetts  cities  and 
towns  since  1881,  except  by  the  votes  of 
towns  and  cities  in  the  immediate  vicinity 
of  license  towns  and  cities. 

Jjicenses. 

The  facts  about  licenses  and  the  methods 
of  granting  them  are  among  the  most  impor- 
tant parts  of  the  results  of  this  study.  There 
is  general  agreement  that  hcenses  should  not 
be  granted  for  more  than  one  year.  The 
Massachusetts  hmitation  of  the  number  of 
licenses  by  the  population  (one  license  to  1000 
inhabitants,  except  in  Boston  1  to  500)  has 
worked  well,  by  reducing  the  number  of  sa- 
loons, and  making  the  keepers  more  law-abid- 
ing; but  the  evidence  does  not  justify  the 


LEGISLATIVE  ASPECTS  57 

statement  that  it  would  work  well  everywhere. 
The  Missouri  restriction  —  no  license  within 
500  feet  of  a  public  park  —  and  the  Massa- 
chusetts restriction  —  no  Hcense  within  400 
feet  of  a  schoolhouse  —  are  both  commend- 
able. Another  Massachusetts  provision,  to 
the  effect  that  the  holder  of  a  license  to  sell 
liquors  to  be  drunk  on  the  premises  must  also 
hold  a  hcense  as  an  innholder  or  victualer,  is 
well  conceived ;  but  the  means  of  executing  it  j 
have  not  been  thoroughly  worked  out.  Penn-' 
sylvania,  outside  of  Philadelphia,  licenses  only 
taverns  and  restaurants  to  sell  intoxicants 
for  consumption  on  the  premises. 

County  courts  have  been,  and  still  are, 
common  licensing  authorities  in  the  States 
reported  on.  Officials  elected  for  short  terms, 
like  the  mayor  and  aldermen  of  cities,  make 
bad  licensing  authorities ;  for  the  reason  that 
the  liquor  question  thereby  becomes  a  fre- 
quently recurring  issue  in  municipal  politics. 
A  Massachusetts  law  of  recent  date  provides 
for  the  appointment  by  the  mayor  of  any 
city  of  three  license  commissioners,  each  to 
serve  six  years,  one  commissioner  retiring 
every  second  year.  This  arrangement  pro- 
vides  a   tolerably    stable    and    independent 


58  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

board,  without   violating    the    principle   of 
local  self-government. 

Every  licensing  authority  should  have 
power  to  revoke  a  license  promptly,  and 
should  always  have  discretion  to  withhold  a 
license,  no  matter  how  complete  may  be  the 
compliance  of  the  applicant  with  all  prehm- 
inary  conditions. 

The  objections  to  using  courts  as  licensing 
authorities  are  grave.  In  cities,  licenses  are 
large  money-prizes,  and  whoever  awards  many 
of  them  year  after  year  is  more  liable  to  the 
suspicion  of  yielding  to  improper  influences 
than  judges  ordinarily  are  in  the  discharge  of 
strictly  judicial  duties.  Wherever  the  judge- 
ships are  elective  offices,  it  is  difficult  for  can- 
didates to  avoid  the  suspicion  that  they  have 
given  pledges  to  the  liquor  interest.  Since 
judicial  purity  and  reputation  for  purity  are 
much  more  important  than  discreet  and  fair 
licensing,  it  would  be  wiser  not  to  use  courts 
as  licensing  authorities. 

There  are  also  grave  inherent  objections  to 
the  whole  license  system,  when  resting  on  the 
discretion  of  commissioners,  which  the  experi- 
ence of  these  eig-ht  States  cannot  be  said  to 
remove.   No  other  element  connected  with  a 


LEGISLATIVE  ASPECTS  69 

license  does  so  much  to  throw  the  liquor 
traffic  into  politics.  It  compels  the  traffic  to 
be  in  politics  for  self-protection.  It  makes  of 
every  licensing  board  a  powerful  political  en- 
gine. A  tax  law  avoids  this  result,  and  is  so 
far  an  improvement.  The  Ohio  law  is  a  case 
in  point. 

Bonds  are  generally  required  of  licensees. 
Experience  has  proved  that  wholesale  dealers 
get  control  of  the  retailers  by  signing  numer- 
ous bonds  for  them.  This  practice  can  be, 
and  has  been,  prevented  by  legislation  of 
various  sorts,  —  as,  for  example,  by  enacting 
(Iowa,  1894)  that  no  person  shall  sign  more 
than  one  bond,  or  (Pennsylvania)  that  bonds- 
men shall  not  be  engaged  in  the  manufacture 
of  spirituous  or  malt  Kquors.  The  appearance 
of  office-holders  and  politicians  on  numerous 
bonds,  as  in  Philadelphia,  might  be  prevented 
by  a  law  declaring  that  holders  of  elective 
offices  shall  not  be  accepted  as  bondsmen  for 
licensees. 

Before  a  license  for  a  saloon  can  be  issued, 
Massachusetts  requires  the  consent  of  the 
owner  of  the  building  in  which  the  saloon  is 
to  be,  and  the  consent  of  the  owners  of  pro- 
perty within  twenty-five  feet  of  the  premises 


60  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

to  be  occupied  by  the  saloon.  Iowa  requires 
the  consent  of  all  property-holders  within  fifty 
feet  of  saloon  premises.  The  Missouri  pro- 
vision is  a  thorough  one,  and  can  be  evaded 
only  at  considerable  cost  and  risk.  Known 
methods  of  evasion  are  building  and  selling 
tenements  so  as  to  increase  the  number  of 
voters  in  the  block,  and  dividing  ordinary 
lots  into  many  small  lots  held  by  different 
persons. 

It  has  been  a  common  practice  to  require 
every  applicant  for  a  license  to  file  a  certifi- 
cate, signed  by  twelve  or  more  respectable 
citizens,  testifying  to  the  applicant's  citizen- 
ship and  good  character.  This  certificate  is 
of  some  value  to  a  careful  licensing  author- 
ity, but  it  may  conceal  the  carelessness  of 
an  unconscientious  authority.  In  connection 
with  a  tax  law  it  might  work  well.  In  1872- 
73,  at  a  time  when  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Iowa  had  declared  local  option  unconstitu- 
tional, Iowa  demanded  that  this  certificate 
should  be  signed  by  the  majority  of  the  voters 
in  the  township,  city,  or  ward  for  which  the 
hcense  was  asked,  —  thus  securing  a  kind  of 
local  option. 

As  a  rule,  the  upper  limit  of  license  fees  in 


LEGISLATIVE  ASPECTS  61 

cities  and  large  towns  has  by  no  means  been 
reached.  The  examples  of  Missouri  and  St. 
Louis  (combined  fee),  North  Adams  in 
Massachusetts,  and  Boston  prove  that  the 
traffic  can  be  made  to  yield  much  more  rev-  | 
enue  than  has  been  supposed.  In  1883  the 
principal  fees  were  doubled  in  Boston  with- 
out diminishing  the  number  of  applications. 
They  were  raised  again  in  1888.  In  St.  Louis 
the  traffic  pays  a  state  tax,  a  county  tax,  an 
ad  valorem  tax  on  all  liquors  received,  and  a 
municipal  tax  which  sometimes  reaches  $300 
a  month  for  a  single  saloon.  When  a  hcense 
attaches  to  a  place,  and  not  to  a  person,  the 
owner  of  the  shop  fixes  the  rent,  not  by  the 
value  of  the  building  for  any  business,  but 
by  the  special  value  of  the  license.  That  is  a 
profit  which  the  municipality  might  absorb  in 
the  license  fee. 


Restrictions  on  the  Sale. 

The  most  important  question  with  regard 
to  any  form  of  Hquor  legislation  is  this :  Is 
it  adaj^ted  to  secure  the  enforcement  of  the  L-i^ 
restrictions  on  the  sale  of  intoxicants  which 
experience  has  shown  to  be  desirable,  assum- 
ing that  only  those  restrictions  can  be  en- 


62  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

forced  which  commend  themselves  to  an 
enlightened  and  effective  pubHc  sentiment  ? 
The  restrictions  which  the  experience  of  many 
years  and  many  places  has  proved  to  be  desir- 
able are  chiefly  these  :  — 
^  There  should  be  no  selling  to  minors,  in- 
toxicated persons,  or  habitual  drunkards. 

There  should  be  no  seUing  on  Sundays, 
election  days,  or  legal  holidays  in  general, 
such  as  Christmas  Day,  Memorial  Bay,  and 
the  Fourth  of  July.  Where,  however,  such 
a  restriction  is  openly  disregarded,  as  in  St. 
Louis,  it  is  injurious  to  have  it  in  the  law. 

Saloons  should  not  be  allowed  to  become 
places  of  entertainment,  and  to  this  end  they 
should  not  be  allowed  to  provide  musical  in- 
struments, billiard  or  pool  tables,  bowling 
alleys,  cards,  or  dice. 

Saloons  should  not  be  licensed  in  theatres 
or  concert  halls ;  and  no  boxing,  wrestling, 
cock-fighting,  or  other  exhibition  should  be 
allowed  in  saloons. 

Every  saloon  should  be  wide  open  to  pub- 
lic inspection  from  the  highway,  no  screens 
or  partitions  being  permitted. 

There  should  be  a  limit  to  the  hours  of 
selling,  and  the  shorter  the  hours  the  better. 


LEGISLATIVE  ASPECTS  G3 

In  the  different  States  saloons  close  at  vari- 
ous hours.  Thus,  in  Maine  cities  in  which 
saloons  are  openly  maintained,  the  hour  for 
closing  is  ten  p.  m.,  and  in  Massachusetts  it 
is  eleven  p.  m.  ;  but  the  county  dispensaries 
of  South  Carolina  close  at  six  p.  m. 

It  has  been  found  necessary  to  prevent 
by  police  regulation  the  display  of  obscene 
pictures  in  saloons,  and  the  employment  of 
women  as  bar-tenders,  waitresses,  singers,  or 
actresses. 

Most  of  the  above  restrictions  can  be  ex- 
ecuted in  any  place  where  there  is  a  reason- 
ably good  police  force,  provided  that  pubhc 
opinion  accepts  such  restrictions  as  desirable. 
If  public  sentiment  does  not  support  them, 
they  will  be  disregarded  or  evaded,  as  they 
are  in  St.  Louis,  although  the  Missouri  law 
is  a  good  one  in  respect  to  restrictions  on 
licensees.  The  prohibition  of  Sunday  selling 
is  an  old  restriction  in  the  United  States  \ 
(Indiana,  1816),  and  the  more  Sunday  is 
converted  into  a  public  holiday  the  more  im- 
portant this  restriction  becomes,  if  public 
sentiment  will  sustain  it. 

All  restrictions  on  the  licensed  saloons  have 
a   tendency   to   develop  illicit  selling ;   but 


/ 


64  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

much  experience  has  proved  that  illicit  sell- 
ing cannot  get  a  large  development  by  the 
side  of  licensed  selling,  if  the  police  adminis- 
tration be  at  all  effective.  It  is  only  in  regions 
where  prohibition  prevails  that  illicit  selling 
assumes  large  proportions.  In  license  cities, 
where  the  regulations  forbid  sales  after  ten 
or  eleven  o'clock  on  Saturday  evening  and 
sales  on  Sundays,  the  illicit  traffic  is  most 
developed  after  hours  on  Saturday  and  on 
Sunday. 

Druggists'  Licenses. 

The  selling  of  intoxicants  by  druggists  has 
been  a  serious  difficulty  in  the  way  of  enf  or-  \ 
cing  prohibitory  laws.  In  Iowa,  when  the 
law  of  1886  closed  large  numbers  of  saloons,  ,' 
the  druggists  were  almost  compelled  to  sell 
liquors,  —  at  least  to  their  own  acquaintances 
and  regular  customers.  In  Maine,  the  sale  by 
druggists  has  always  been  a  favorite  mode  of 
evading  the  law.  States  which  have  insisted 
on  a  proper  education  of  pharmacists,  and 
maintained  a  state  registry  for  pharmacists, 
have  had  an  advantage,  when  the  closing  of 
saloons  has  brought  a  pressure  on  drug-stores 
to  supply  intoxicants ;  for  the  supervision  of 


LEGISLATIVE  ASPECTS  65 

the  State  secures  a  higher  class  of  men  in 
the  pharmacy  business. 

The  checks  on  the  selling  of  liquor  by- 
druggists  are  chiefly  these  :  first,  none  but  a 
registered  pharmacist  shall  be  intrusted  with 
a  license ;  secondly,  no  druggist  shall  sell  in 
small  quantities  without  a  written  prescrip- 
tion by  a  physician,  and  this  physician  must 
not  be  the  drujrffist  himself  or  one  interested 
in  the  drug-store.  The  sale  of  liquor  by 
druggists  cannot  be  perfectly  controlled,  how- 
ever, by  either  or  both  of  these  regulations. 

Liquor  Cases  in  the  Courts. 

Under  all  sorts  of  liquor  laws  great  diffi- 
culty has  been  found  in  getting  the  courts 
to  deal  effectively  and  promptly  with  liquor 
cases.  AHke  under  the  license  law  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  imder  the  prohibition  law  in 
Maine,  this  difficulty  has  presented  itself.  In 
Maine,  after  more  than  forty  years'  experi- 
ence, and  after  frequent  amendment  of  the 
law  of  1851  with  the  object  of  preventing 
delay  in  deahng  with  liquor  cases,  it  is  still 
easy  to  obtain  a  year's  delay  between  the 
commission  of  a  liquor  offense  and  sentence 
therefor.   In  Massachusetts,  so  many  cases 


66  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

were  placed  on  file  and  nol  pros'd  that,  in 
/  1885,  a  law  was  passed  against  the  improper 
(  canceling  of  cases.  This  law  checked  the 
evil.  In  1884,  78  per  cent,  of  all  the  liquor 
cases  were  placed  on  file  or  nol  pros'd ;  in 
1885,  34  per  cent.,  and  in  1893  only  3.41 
per  cent.  Wherever  district  attorneys  and 
judges  are  elected  by  the  people,  this  trou- 
ble is  likely  to  be  all  the  more  serious.  One 
consequence  of  the  delays  and  miscarriages 
in  liquor  cases  is  that  the  legal  proceedings  in 
enforcing  a  liquor  law  become  very  costly 
in  proportion  to  the  number  of  sentences  im- 
posed. 

Experience  in  various  States  has  shown 

,   that  the  penalty  of  imprisonment  prevents 

/    obtaining  convictions  in  liquor  cases.    This 

penalty  has  been  tried  over  and  over  again 

by   ardent   legislators,  but  in   practice  has 

never  succeeded,  —  at  least  for  first  offenses. 

I    Fines  have  seemed  to  ordinary  judges  and 

juries  sufficient  penalties  for  liquor  offenses. 

Laws  with  severe  penalties  have  often  been 

passed,  and  courts  have  often  been  deprived 

of  all  choice  between  fine  and  imprisonment ; 

but  in  practice  such  enactments  have  proved 

less  effective  than  milder  ones. 


LEGISLATIVE  ASPECTS  G7 

A  wise  discrimination  is  made  in  some 
States  between  the  fines  for  selling  liquors  in 
counties  or  municipalities  which  have  voted 
for  no-license,  and  the  fines  for  selling  with- 
out a  license  in  counties  or  municipalities 
which  have  voted  for  license.  The  first  of- 
fense requires  the  heavier  fine.  In  Missouri, 
for  an  offense  of  the  first  sort  the  fine  is 
from  $300  to  $1000;  for  an  offense  of  the 
second  sort,  from  $40  to  $200.  In  States 
where  a  license  system  prevails  throughout, 
the  fine  for  selling  without  a  license  needs 
to  be  high.  Thus,  in  Pennsylvania,  the  fine 
for  this  offense  is  from  $500  to  $5000. 
It  is,  of  course,  important  that  the  fine  for 
selling  without  a  license  should  be  decidedly 
higher  than  the  annual  cost  of  a  license. 

It  has  been  thought  necessary  to  stimulate 
the  enforcement  of  liquor  laws  by  offering 
large  rewards  to  informers.  Thus,  in  Ohio, 
half  the  fine  imposed  goes  to  the  informer, 
whenever  a  house  of  ill-fame  is  convicted 
of  selling  liquor.  In  South  Carolina,  twenty 
cents  on  every  gallon  of  confiscated  liquor  is 
paid  to  the  informer,  and  any  sheriff  or  trial 
justice  who  seizes  contraband  liquors  is  paid 
half  their  value.    Laws  like  these  excite  in- 


68     .  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

tense  animosities,  and  necessitate  other  laws 
for  the  protection  of  informers.  They  have 
been  effective,  however,  in  some  instances. 

Transportation  of  Liquor. 

The  subject  of  the  transportation  of  liquor 
into  or  within  a  State  has  been  a  very  diffi- 
cult one  for  legislators  in  every  State  which 
has  tried  the  policy  of  prohibition,  or  of  local 
no-license,  or  of  State  monopoly.  Maine  has 
struggled  for  more  than  forty  years  with  the 
problem  of  preventing  the  transportation  of 
liquor  intended  for  sale,  but  with  very  limited 
success.  That  state,  however,  presents  pecul- 
iar difficulties  ;  for  it  has  a  much-indented 
coast  and  several  navigable  rivers,  so  that 
many  of  its  principal  towns  and  cities  are 
accessible  by  water  as  well  as  by  rail.  The 
most  minute  and  painstaking  legislation  has 
failed  to  attain  the  object  of  the  prohibition- 
ists. In  South  Carolina  the  legislature  has 
been  more  successful  in  defending  the  state 
monopoly.  The  lines  of  transportation  are 
comparatively  few.  Severe  penalties  have 
been  enacted  against  the  transportation  of 
contraband  liquor ;  arbitrary  and  vexatious 
powers  have  been  given  to  sheriffs,  consta- 


LEGISLATIVE  ASPECTS  69 

bles,  and  policemen  ;  and  the  activity  of  the 
local  police  has  been  stimulated  by  a  pro- 
vision that  negligent  municipalities  may  be 
deprived  of  their  share  of  the  profits  of  the 
state  dispensary.  Legislation  of  this  sort 
mtensifies  political  dissensions,  incites  to  so- 
cial strife,  and  abridges  the  public  sense  of 
self-respecting  liberty.  In  States  where  local 
option  prevails,  transportation  by  express  be- 
tween license  communities  and  no-license 
communities  is  practically  unimpeded. 

Arrests  for  Drunkenness. 

Dr.  Wines  and  Mr.  Koren  both  dwell  at 
various  points  on  the  great  difficulty  of  draw- 
ing useful  inferences  from  tables  of  arrests 
for  drunkenness  during  a  series  of  years. 
The  statistics  are  often  imperfect  or  mislead- 
ing because  of  the  efficiency  or  non-efficiency 
of  police ;  or  the  tables  have  been  constructed 
on  different  principles  in  different  years; 
or  the  police  administration  in  the  same  city 
has  changed  its  methods  during  the  period 
of  tabulation ;  or  the  drunk  law  has  been 
altered ;  or  the  policy  of  liquor-sellers  in  re- 
gard to  protecting  intoxicated  persons  from 
arrest  has  been  different  at  different  periods. 


70  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

In  spite  of  these  difficulties,  the  statistics  of 
arrests  for  drunkenness  may  sometimes  afford 
satisfactory  evidence  concerning  the  working 
of  the  prevaihng  liquor  legislation,  although 
the  precise  cause  of  the  increase  or  decrease 
of  arrests  may  remain  in  doubt.  Thus,  in 
South  Carolina,  diminution  of  the  number  of 
arrests  was  an  undoubted  effect  of  the  Dis- 
pensary Law ;  but  it  is  not  sure  whether  the 
diminution  of  public  drunkenness  was  due 
to  the  early  hour  of  closing  (six  p.  m.),  or  to 
the  fact  that  no  drinking  on  the  premises 
was  allowed  in  the  state  dispensaries,  or  to 
the  great  reduction  in  the  total  number  of 
liquor-shops  in  the  State.  In  Massachusetts, 
an  important  change  in  the  drunk  law  made 
in  1891  caused  an  increase  of  arrests,  but  a 
decrease  of  the  number  held  for  trial.  In 
Philadelphia,  the  percentage  of  arrests  for  in- 
toxication and  vagrancy  to  all  arrests  declined 
after  the  enactment  of  the  so-called  "  High- 
License  Law ; "  but  the  probable  explanation 
was  that  the  keepers  both  of  licensed  saloons 
and  of  illicit  shops  protected  drunken  people. 
Another  possible  explanation  was  the  inade- 
quacy of  the  police  force  of  Philadelphia. 
In  St.  Louis,  where  the  saloons  are  numer- 


LEGISLATIVE  ASPECTS  71 

ous  and  unrestrained,  public  order  is  excel- 
lent, and  arrests  for  drunkenness  are  rela- 
tively few ;  but  this  good  condition  is  perhaps 
due  as  much  to  the  quality  of  the  population 
as  to  the  wisdom  of  the  liquor  legislation. 
The  fact  suggests  the  doubt  whether  the 
amount  of  drunkenness  is  anywhere  propor- 
tionate to  the  number  of  saloons. 

Removing  the  Motive  of  Private  Profit. 

Iowa  endeavored  to  carry  out  the  philan- 
thropic idea  of  removing  from  the  liquor 
traffic  the  motive  of  private  profit,  so  long 
ago  as  1854,  by  legislation  which  appointed 
salaried  county  agents  for  the  sale  of  liquor, 
the  specific  reason  given  for  this  legislation 
being  that  no  private  person  might  be  pe- 
cuniarily interested  in  the  sale  of  liquor.  No 
State  has  thus  far  succeeded  in  carrying  out 
this  idea.  The  Dispensary  Law  of  South  . 
Carolina  proposed  to  create  a  complete  state 
monopoly,  with  no  private  licensed  trafiic 
and  no  illicit  traffic,  and  with  all  the  profits 
of  the  business  going  to  the  public  treasury. 
This  law,  if  successfully  carried  into  execu- 
tion, would,  it  should  seem,  remove  from  the 
traffic  the  motive  of  private  gain.     The  law 


72  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

has  not  been  entirely  successful  in  this  re- 
spect, because  the  salaries  of  dispensers  are 
made  to  depend  on  the  amount  of  business 
done  in  their  respective  dispensaries ;  and  it 
\  therefore  becomes  the  private  interest  of  the 
dispenser  to  enlarge  his  business  as  much  as 
possible.  There  is  at  present  no  American 
legislation  effective  to  this  desirable  end. 


/ 


Theoretical  Difficulties  of  Liquor  Legislation. 

The  South  Carolina  Dispensary  Law  well 
illustrates  the  theoretical  difficulties  which 
beset  liquor  legislation.  It  proposes  to  main- 
tain a  highly  profitable  state  monopoly  of  the 
sale  of  intoxicants.  The  revenue  purpose  is 
extremely  offensive  to  prohibitionists ;  yet 
this  motive  appears  plainly  in  the  practical 
administration  of  the  law,  as  well  as  in  its 
theoretical  purpose.  Thus,  for  example,  the 
state  dispensers  sell  the  cheapest  kinds  of 
distilled  liquor,  because  it  is  more  profitable 
to  sell  that  liquor  than  any  other,  the  tastes 
and  capacities  of  their  customers  being  con- 
sidered. Again,  the  law  does  not  prohibit 
the  manufacture  of  distilled,  malt,  or  vinous 
liquors ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  in  some  re- 
spects encourages  those  manufactures  within 


LEGISLATIVE  ASPECTS  73 

the  State.  The  fundamental  conception  in 
the  law  is  distinctly  antagonistic  to  the  theory 
that  liquor-selling  is  sinful  or  unholy ;  for 
the  State  itself  assumes  the  whole  of  that 
business  and  takes  its  profits.  Although 
supported  by  prohibitionists  at  the  time  of 
its  enactment,  it  flies  in  the  face  of  all  logical 
prohibitory  theory.  It  has  been  enforced 
with  a  remarkable  degree  of  success,  but  at 
great  cost  of  political  and  social  antagonisms. 
The  theory  of  the  Ohio  legislation  is  inter- 
esting in  itself,  and  also  because  it  suggested 
the  present  Iowa  legislation.  In  Ohio,  licens- 
ing is  prohibited  by  the  Constitution  ;  but 
when  a  person  is  found  selling  liquor,  he  is 
requii'ed  to  pay  a  tax  of  $250,  and  to  give  a 
bond  to  observe  certain  restrictions  on  selling. 
The  tax  is  far  too  low,  particularly  for  city 
saloons ;  and  the  restrictions  are  not  sufiR- 
ciently  numerous,  and  in  many  places  are  not 
enforced.  Under  the  law  as  practically  ad- 
ministered, saloons  are  much  too  numerous. 
On  the  other  hand,  this  law  prevents  in  some 
measure  the  evil  effects  of  liquor  legislation 
on  politics.  There  are  no  licensing  author- 
ities, no  political  offices  for  conducting  or 
supervising  the  liquor  business,  and  only  a 


74  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

moderate  amount  of  liquor  litigation.    These 
are  weighty  recommendations  of  the  law. 

Although  the  Iowa  legislation  was  origi- 
nally suggested  by  the  Ohio  law,  it  has  a  very 
different  theoretical  basis.  In  Iowa,  prohibi- 
tion is  the  rule ;  but  by  paying  a  fee  or  tax, 
and  submitting  to  numerous  well-devised  re- 
strictions, a  liquor-seller  may  procure  exemp- 
tion from  the  operation  of  the  prohibitory 
law.  Neither  the  Ohio  theory  nor  the  Iowa 
theory  is  satisfactory  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  prohibitionists,  any  more  than  the 
theory  of  the  South  Carolina  Dispensary  Law. 
In  the  present  state  of  legislation,  different 
laws  must  be  judged  by  their  practical  effects, 
and  not  by  the  ethical  theory  on  which  they 
rest. 

Promotion  of  Temperance  hy  Law. 

It  cannot  be  positively  affirmed  that  any 
one  kind  of  Hquor  legislation  has  been  more 
successful  than  another  in  promoting  real 
temperance.  Legislation  as  a  cause  of  im- 
provement can  rarely  be  separated  from  other 
possible  causes.  The  influences  of  race  or  na- 
tionality are  apparently  more  important  than 
\  legislation.    That  law  is  best  which  is  best 


^ 


LEGISLATIVE  ASPECTS  75 

administered.'  Even  when  external  improve- 
ments have  undoubtedly  been  effected  by 
new  legislation,  it  often  remains  doubtful,  or 
at  least  not  demonstrable,  whether  or  not  the 
visible  improvements  have  been  accompanied 
by  a  diminution  in  the  amount  of  drinking. 
Thus,  a  reduction  in  the  number  of  saloons 
in  proportion  to  the  population  undoubtedly 
promotes  order,  quiet,  and  outward  decency ; 
but  it  is  not  certain  that  the  surviving  sa- 
loons sell  less  liquor  in  total  than  the  previ- 
ous more  numerous  saloons.  Again,  it  is 
often  said  that  restrictions  on  drinking  at 
public  bars  tend  to  increase  drinking  at 
home  or  in  private,  and  there  is  probably 
truth  in  this  allegation ;  but  comparative  sta- 
tistics of  public  and  private  consumption  are 
not  attainable,  so  that  it  is  impossible  to  hold 
a  well-grounded  opinion  on  this  point.  The 
wise  course  for  the  community  at  large  is  to 
strive  after  all  external,  visible  improvements, 
even  if  it  be  impossible  to  prove  that  inter- 
nal, fundamental  improvement  accompanies 

them. 

Liquor  Laws  in  Politics. 

Almost  every  sort  of  Hquor  legislation  ere-    \ 
ates  some  specific  evil  in  politics.    The  evils 


76  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

which  result  from  prohibitory  legislation  have 
been  already  mentioned.  Under  a  license 
system,  there  is  great  liability  that  the  pro- 
cess of  issuing  licenses  will  breed  some  sort 
of  political  corruption.  Whenever  high-paid 
offices  are  created  by  liquor  legislation,  those 
offices  become  the  objects  of  political  conten- 
tion. When  a  multitude  of  offices  are  created 
in  the  execution  of  liquor  laws,  they  fur- 
nish the  means  of  putting  together  a  strong 
political  machine.  Just  this  happened  under 
the  dispensary  sj'^stem  in  South  Carolina, 
where  a  machine  of  great  capacity  for  politi- 
cal purposes  was  created  in  a  short  time,  with 
the  governor  of  the  State  as  its  engineer. 
The  creation  of  this  machine  intensified  the 
bitter  political  divisions  which  caused  the 
adoption  of  the  Dispensary  Law  and  made 
possible  its  enforcement.  The  activity  of 
liquor-dealers'  associations  in  municipal  poli- 
tics all  over  the  United  States  is  in  one  sense 
an  effect  of  the  numerous  experiments  in 
liquor  legislation  which  have  been  in  progress 
during  the  last  thirty  years.  The  traffic,  be- 
ing attacked  by  legislation,  tries  to  protect 
itself  by  controlling  municipal  and  state 
legislators. 


LEGISLATIVE  ASPECTS  77 

The  commonest  issue  over  which  conten- 
tions about  local  self-government  have  arisen 
has  been  the  liquor  issue.  The  prohibition- . 
ists  early  discovered  that  local  police  will 
not  enforce  a  prohibitory  law  in  places  where 
public  sentiment  is  opposed  to  the  law.  They 
therefore  demanded  that  a  state  constabidary 
should  be  charged  with  the  execution  of  that 
law.  This  issue  has  arisen  in  States  whose  le- 
gislation stops  far  short  of  prohibition.  Thus, 
in  Missouri,  the  governor  appoints  the  excise 
commissioner  who  is  the  licensing  authority 
in  St.  Louis;  and  in  Massachusetts,  where 
local  option  and  high  license  prevail,  the 
police  commissioners  of  Boston  are  appointed 
by  the  governor.  So  far  as  enforcement  of 
the  laws  goes,  state-appointed  officers  or  com- 
missions have  often  brought  about  great  im- 
provements. In  South  Carolina,  the  Dispen- 
sary Act  could  not  have  been  enforced  had 
it  not  been  that  the  governor  was  empowered 
to  appoint  an  unlimited  number  of  consta- 
bles to  execute  that  one  law.  He  was  also 
empowered  to  organize  at  any  moment  a 
metropolitan  police  for  any  city  in  which  the 
local  officers  neglected  their  duties  in  regard 
to  the  enforcement  of  the  Dispensary  Act. 


78  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

Nevertheless,  violations  of  the  principle  of 
local  self-government  are  always  to  be  de- 
plored, unless  a  municipality  has  exhibited 
an  absolute  incapacity  to  govern  itself,  or 
unless  the  violations  are  plainly  based  on 
another  valuable  principle,  namely,  that  of 
voluntary  cooperation  for  common  ends  whose 
scope  transcends  the  limits  of  single  muni- 
cipalities. 

There  are,  of  course,  other  promising  di- 
rections for  efforts  to  promote  temperance, 
such  as  the  removal  of  the  motive  of  private 
gain  in  stimulating  the  liquor  traffic,  the  sub- 
stitution of  non-alcoholic  drinks  for  intoxicants 
as  refreshments  or  means  of  ready  hospitality, 
and  the  giving  of  a  preference  in  certain  em- 
ployments to  total  abstainers  or  to  persons 
who  never  drink  while  on  duty,  particularly 
in  those  employments  which  have  to  do  with 
the  care  or  supervision  of  human  beings,  an- 
imals, and  machines,  or  with  transportation 
by  land  or  sea ;  but  since  these  interesting 
topics  do  not  strictly  belong  to  the  present 
legislative  aspects  of  the  drink  problem,  the 
sub-committee  do  not  dwell  on  them. 


IV 

A  SUMMARY  OF  INVESTIGATIONS 
CONCERNING  THE  ECONOMIC  AS- 
PECTS OF  THE   LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

By  henry  W.  FARNAM 

SECRETABY  OF  THE  BUB-COMMITTEE 


A  SUMMARY  OF  INVESTIGATIONS  CON- 
CERNING THE  ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF 
THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

I.  SCOPE  AND  OBJECT  OF  THE  INVESTIGATION 

It  should  be  clearly  understood  at  the  out- 
set that  this  chapter  does  not  attempt  to  deal 
■with  all  of  the  phases  of  the  liquor  problem 
which  may  have  an  economic  bearing.  The 
important  subjects  treated  in  the  12th  An- 
nual Report  of  the  Federal  Department  of 
Labor,  and  relating  principally  to  the  pro- 
duction and  consumption  of  liquor  and  the 
amount  contributed  by  the  traffic  towards 
taxation,  were,  from  the  beginning,  excluded 
from  our  investigation,  because  they  were 
already  provided  for.  Nor  did  we  attempt  to 
duplicate  any  of  the  work  done  by  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor  and 
published  in  its  26th  Annual  Report. 

Of  the  questions  that  remain,  our  investi- 
gation considers :  — 

1.  The  relations  of  the  liquor  problem  to 
poverty  and  destitution  as  evidenced  in  the 


82  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

work  of  charity  organization  societies,  alms- 
houses, and  societies  for  the  care  of  poor 
children ; 

2.  Its  relations  to  crime  as  shown  in  some 
of  the  leading  reformatories  and  State  prisons 
of  the  country ; 

3.  Its  relations  to  the  Negroes  and  to  the 
North  American  Indians  ; 

4.  The  economics  of  the  saloon  as  the 
chief  distributing  agency  of  liquor  in  large 
cities. 

By  limiting  our  field  we  have  made  it 
possible,  as  we  believe,  to  cover  it  more 
thoroughly  than  has  been  done  hitherto. 
Several  valuable  investigations,  it  is  true, 
have  already  been  undertaken  into  these  sub- 
jects in  the  United  States.  The  Massachu- 
setts Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor  has,  we 
believe,  the  honor  of  having  been  the  pioneer 
in  this  field,  and  in  its  12th  Annual  Report, 
published  in  1881,  gave  the  results  of  an  in- 
vestigation into  the  statistics  of  drunkenness 
and  liquor  selling,  from  1870  to  1879,  and 
the  influence  of  intemperance  upon  crime. 
The  11th  Census  also  published  a  report 
made  under  the  direction  of  Dr.  F.  H.  Wines, 
which   dealt  with  pauperism  and   crime  in 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  83 

general,  and  gave  many  facts  •with  regard  to 
the  relations  o£  intemperance  to  these  evils. 
More  complete  in  many  respects  than  either 
of  these  is  the  2Gth  Report  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Bureau  of  Labor,  already  referred  to. 
The  12th  Report  of  that  Bureau,  valuable  as 
it  was,  covered  but  the  single  county  of  Suf- 
folk, and  dealt  with  the  convictions  for  one 
year.  It  related  only  to  crime,  and  not  to 
pauperism.  The  11th  Census,  while  covering 
the  whole  country  and  including  both  pau- 
perism and  crime,  necessarily  confined  itself 
to  pauperism  in  almshouses,  and  took  no  ac- 
count of  cases  of  poverty  relieved  by  private 
persons.  Moreover,  it  did  not  undertake  to 
investigate  the  extent  to  which  intemperance 
is  directly  a  cause  of  poverty.  Its  statistics 
confine  themselves  to  the  liquor  habits  of  the 
inmates  of  almshouses.  These  two  things  are, 
of  course,  quite  distinct.  The  26th  Report 
of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  covered  not  only 
crime  and  pauperism,  but  also  insanity,  and 
studied  liquor  as  a  cause  in  all  three  cases ; 
but  it  did  not  relate  to  any  poverty  excepting 
in  almshouses  ;  and  it  did  not  extend  beyond 
the  boundaries  of  a  single  State.  Most  of 
the  other  statistics  hitherto  collected  upon 


84  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

these  subjects  have  been  obtained  Inciden- 
tally in  connection  with  other  investigations. 
Among  the  more  important  studies  with 
which  our  work  may  be  brought  into  com- 
parison are  the  investigation  of  the  German 
Imperial  Statistical  Bureau  into  public  poor 
relief,  made  in  1885  ;  a  similar  investigation 
undertaken  by  Dr.  Boehmert  into  pauperism 
in  77  German  cities  in  1887;  the  investi- 
gations of  Mr.  Charles  Booth  in  England, 
published  in  his  "  Life  and  Labour  of  the 
People "  and  "  Pauperism  and  the  Endow- 
ment of  Old  Age ; "  and  the  figures  collected 
from  the  charity  organization  societies  by 
Professor  A.  G.  Warner  for  his  "  American 
Charities." 

As  compared  with  these  investigations,  we 
may  fairly  claim  for  our  work :  — 

1.  That,  with  the  exception  of  the  German 
reports  of  1885  and  1887,  it  covers  a  larger 
number  of  cases  numerically  than  any  of 
those  mentioned ; 

2.  That  it  covers  a  greater  variety  of  cases 
than  any  of  them,  since  we  have  studied  not 
only  paupers  in  almshouses,  but  also  cases  of 
destitution  treated  by  various  classes  of  pri- 
vate societies,  and  cases  of  crime ; 


ECONOMIC   ASPECTS  85 

3.  That  it  covers  a  much  wider  area  terri- 
torially ; 

4.  That  it  gives  us  valuable  facts  with  re- 
gard to  a  greater  number  of  nationalities. 

Such  a  thorough  investigation  has  neces- 
sarily involved  the  expenditure  of  considerable 
labor  and  time.  Mr.  Koren  was  employed 
almost  continually  upon  the  subject  for  over 
two  years.  For  a  year  he  had  the  assistance 
of  a  statistical  expert,  and  during  five  months, 
of  four  tabulators.  This,  however,  was  but  a 
small  part  of  the  work  performed,  for  we  had 
the  gratuitous  services  of  the  agents  of  33 
charity  organization  societies  and  11  chil- 
dren's aid  societies  and  schools,  while  the 
superintendents  and  chaplains,  or  other  offi- 
cials, of  60  almshouses  and  17  prisons  and 
reformatories  rendered  most  valuable  service 
either  gratuitously  or  for  a  merely  nominal 
consideration. 

II.    IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  INVESTIGATION 

The  reader  may  perhaps  question  the  econ- 
omy of  our  work.  Are  the  results  worth  all 
o£  the  labor  spent  in  obtaining  them  ?  Many 
persons  whose  judgment  is  worthy  of  respect 
have  raised   this   question,  and   some  have 


8G  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

answered  it  in  the  negative.  This  is  especially 
true  of  those  who  are  engaged  in  the  active 
work  of  poor  relief.  Seeing  about  them  the 
evil  effects  of  drink,  and  the  mass  of  poverty 
and  degradation  due  to  other  causes  as  well, 
they  naturally  say,  "  What  is  the  use  of  try- 
ing to  get  more  facts  to  present  in  a  statis- 
tical form?  We  know  enough  about  liquor 
to  know  that  its  effects  are  bad  ;  whether  a 
greater  or  smaller  percentage  of  cases  can  be 
attributed  to  this  one  cause  has  little  to  do 
with  the  practical  problems  which  press  upon 
us.  We  cannot  afford  to  waste  our  strength 
and  our  money  in  a  search  for  statistics  when 
all  of  the  facts  that  we  need  to  know  are 
before  our  eyes." 

This  objection  is  a  very  natural  one.  A 
generation  ago  it  would  probably  have  been 
insuperable,  and  the  investigation  just  made 
would  have  been  quite  impossible.  A  very 
large  number  of  the  cases  considered  have 
been  supplied  by  the  charity  organization 
societies,  and  the  oldest  of  these  societies  in 
our  country  was  less  than  twenty-one  years 
old  when  our  investigation  was  begun.  Even 
fifteen  years  ago  there  were  very  few  of  them, 
and  it  is  doubtful  whether,  at  that  time,  they 


ECONOMIC   ASPECTS  87 

■would  have  had  the  means  or  the  interest 
necessary  to  collect  the  elaborate  facts  which 
they  have  so  kindly  and  generously  put  into 
our  hands.  We  have  ourselves  often  been 
surprised  at  the  willingness  of  hard-working 
agents  to  undertake  additional  labors,  simply 
for  the  sake  of  adding  to  the  fund  of  human 
knowledge.  The  fact,  however,  that  almost 
all  of  the  societies  which  were  approached 
upon  the  subject  entered  readily,  and  in  some 
cases  eagerly,  into  our  plan,  and  that  but  two 
refused  to  cooperate  on  any  other  ground 
than  that  of  expense,  is  in  itself  the  best  proof 
that  practical  workers  feel  the  need  of  just 
such  facts  as  we  have  collected.  The  same 
objection  may  be  raised  against  scientific 
work  in  any  department  of  human  activity 
which  aims  to  mitigate  the  ills  of  humanity. 
The  hard-working  country  doctor  is  loath  to 
spend  his  time  over  the  microscope,  when  so 
many  people  require  his  skill  in  the  heahng 
art.  Still  less  wilHng  is  he  to  make  experi- 
ments on  living  animals  in  order  to  satisfy 
his  mind  regarding  some  theory  of  disease. 
Yet  the  progress  of  modern  medicine  has 
been  due  to  the  fact  that  a  few  men  have 
been  enabled  to  work  in  their   laboratories 


88  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

instead  of  at  the  bedside,  and  have  thus 
gathered  the  facts  and  formulated  the  theo- 
ries  without  which  the  bedside  practitioner 
of  the  day  would  be  helpless  indeed. 

It  is  in  this  spirit  of  scientific  research  that 
the  present  investigation  into  the  liquor  prob- 
lem has  been  undertaken.  Of  course  we  all 
know  that  drunkenness  is  bad.  We  all  know 
of  families  ruined  by  the  dissipation  of  their 
breadwinner.  Such  general  facts  are  not  to 
be  sought  for  in  such  a  study.  Nevertheless, 
in  spite  of  the  vigorous  efforts  of  nearly  a 
century,  the  liquor  problem  is  still  with  us. 
We  know  that,  in  spite  of  very  drastic  laws, 
the  liquor  law  which  will  really  seriously 
check  intemperance  is  still  to  be  discovered. 
This,  at  least,  may  be  taken  as  the  result  of 
the  investigation  of  the  Legislative  Sub-com- 
mittee, which,  after  a  most  thorough  study, 
culminated  in  a  negative  conclusion.  We 
know  that  the  efforts  made  by  moral  and  re- 
ligious agencies,  great  as  have  been  their 
successes  in  individual  cases,  have  not  solved 
the  problem.  But  we  also  know  that  difficult 
problems  in  other  departments  of  life  have 
been  solved  by  means  of  a  careful  and  scien- 
tific investigation,  and  by  the  use  of  many 


ECONOMIC   ASPECTS  89 

hypotheses  and  many  scientific  laws,  no  one 
of  which,  tiiken  by  itself,  may  seem  to  have 
had  a  very  far-reacliing  value.  We  therefore 
believe  that,  in  the  ever  present  liquor  prob- 
lem, which  touches  upon  so  many  different 
phases  of  hfe,  a  careful  investigation  of  the 
facts,  such  as  we  present,  will  be  one  contri- 
bution which,  taken  in  connection  with  others, 
may  perhaps  succeed,  in  the  course  of  time, 
in  makinof  the  conditions  under  which  we  live 
better.  The  progress  in  sanitary  conditions 
and  in  the  treatment  of  disease,  made  through 
scientific  investigation,  ought  certainly  to  en- 
courage us  in  attempting  to  further  a  moral 
reform  by  similar  means. 

It  will  thus  appear  that  our  averages  and 
percentages  are  not  merely  the  playthings  of 
over-subtle  minds,  but  that  they  have  a  very 
practical  use  for  practical  workers.  For  those 
who  are  dealing  with  the  poor,  it  must  be 
of  value  to  know  the  relative  importance  of 
different  causes  of  poverty,  because  in  this 
way  only  can  they  economize  their  energies 
and  make  them  tell  to  the  best  advantage.  It 
is  equally  important  to  know  how  different 
nationalities  are  affected  by  the  liquor  habit, 
for  this  knowledge  should  influence  not  only 


90  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

philanthropic  effort,  but  often  legislation.  A 
comparison  of  the  results  of  our  study  with  the 
data  obtained  by  the  Physiological  Committee 
cannot  fail  likewise  to  be  of  immense  practical 
importance.  If  it  should  be  found,  for  instance, 
that  the  economic  effects  of  alcohol  are  more 
marked  and  striking  than  its  physiological 
effects,  or  again,  if  the  opposite  should  be 
found  true,  either  will  serve  as  a  guide  to 
those  advocating  temperance.  They  will 
know  on  which  side  of  the  question  to  lay 
the  most  emphasis.  Such  a  comparison  can- 
not be  made  for  the  present,  but  the  more 
careful  and  systematic  the  work  of  this  com- 
mittee, the  more  significant  and  trustworthy 
will  such  a  comparison  be,  when  the  time 
comes  for  making  it.  Finally,  our  investiga- 
tion need  not  confine  itself  to  a  study  of 
causes,  but  should  also  take  into  account  the 
efficacy  of  economic  ways  and  means,  without 
behttling  the  results  of  moral  suasion,  reh- 
gious  effort,  and  medical  practice.  In  short, 
the  more  complete  and  thorough  our  know- 
ledge of  all  of  the  effects  of  liquor,  the  better 
shall  we  be  able  to  adapt  our  means  to  our 
ends.  We  may  perhaps  find  that  there  is  no 
panacea  for  this  disease.    It  shows  itself  in 


ECONOMIC   ASPECTS  91 

too  many  different  ways  and  under  too  greatly 
varied  conditions.  We  may  also  find  that, 
by  adopting  different  methods  for  different 
conditions,  we  shall  be  able  to  attack  it  Avitli 
something  of  that  scientific  accuracy  with 
which  such  diseases  as  small-pox  have  been 
handled  in  the  past,  and  with  which  typhoid 
fever  and  consumption  are  but  beginning  to 
be  handled  now.  It  may  be  found  that  eco- 
nomic pressure  alone,  if  properly  directed, 
may  be  a  potent  means  of  promoting  temper- 
ance and  diminishing  the  evils  of  the  alcohol 
habit. 

An  investigation  of  this  kind,  however, 
has  much  broader  bearings  than  the  liquor 
problem  alone.  It  was,  for  instance,  on  account 
of  the  result  of  a  statistical  inquiry  that  Mr. 
Charles  Booth,  although  strongly  impressed 
with  the  importance  of  Hquor  as  a  cause  of 
poverty,  became  the  advocate  of  universal 
old-age  pensions  in  England.  This  study  of 
the  almshouses,  as  well  as  of  the  condition  of 
the  population  of  the  east  end  of  London, 
led  him  to  the  belief  that  a  large  percentage 
of  pauperism  was  due  to  old  age  and  sickness, 
and  a  small  percentage  to  vice  or  bad  habits. 
Intemperance  figured  as  a  cause  of  pauperism 
to  a  very  small  amount  in  his  statistics. 


92  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

Such  figures  as  "we  have  collected  cannot 
fail  to  throw  Hght  on  such  proposals  as  his. 
If  the  figures  from  the  United  States  should 
confirm  the  English  figures,  there  might  be 
the  same  reason  for  advocating  universal  pen- 
sions. Yet  when  we  find  that  on  an  average 
the  poverty  which  comes  under  the  notice  of 
the  charity  organization  societies  can  be  traced 
to  liquor  in  some  25  per  cent,  of  all  the  cases, 
and  that  in  almshouses  the  percentage  is  37, 
we  are  inevitably  led  to  the  belief  that,  while 
much  poverty  may  be  due  to  the  faults  of 
society,  more  than  a  quarter  of  it  in  our  coun- 
try is  due  very  directly  and  obviously  to  a 
very  prominent  fault  of  the  individual. 

III.    RELIABILITY  OF  OUR  RESULTS 

We  shall  naturally  be  met  with  the  inquiry 
how  far  our  figures  can  be  relied  upon,  and 
this  involves  our  method  as  well  as  our  success 
in  carrying  it  out.  That  there  is  an  element 
of  error  in  all  statistical  figures  will  be  readily 
conceded.  We  believe,  however,  that  we  have 
reduced  this  element  to  as  small  dimensions 
as  possible.  There  are  two  ways  of  getting 
statistics.  One  is  to  cover  the  entire  area  in 
question  and  to  endeavor  to  count  every  case 


ECONOMIC   ASPECTS  93 

that  may  arise.  Another  consists  in  selecting 
certain  sample  districts,  areas,  or  institutions, 
and  studying  these.  The  former  method  is 
usually  the  best  where  the  facts  to  be  gathered 
are  comparatively  simple  and  do  not  involve 
the  element  of  judgment.  But  such  an  in- 
quiry can  seldom  be  undertaken  excepting 
by  a  government  bureau,  on  account  of  the 
expense.  And  as  an  investigation  by  the 
Government  usually  involves  the  employment 
of  paid  agents  all  sent  out  from  one  centre, 
if  there  are  any  deviations  from  the  exact 
facts,  they  are  more  apt  to  vitiate  all  figures 
in  the  same  direction.  Moreover,  it  is  often 
difficult  to  employ  a  large  staff  of  enumer- 
ators of  sufficient  intelligence  to  make  an  in- 
quiry involving  moral  elements. 

We  believe,  therefore,  that  the  method 
pursued  by  us,  though  it  does  not  pretend  to 
cover  more  than  a  fraction  of  all  cases,  is,  on 
the  whole,  more  reliable.  The  institutions 
and  societies  have  been  selected,  not  with 
reference  to  any  known  peculiarity  in  their 
clients,  but  solely  on  account  of  the  interest 
and  ability  shown  by  their  agents,  superin- 
tendents, or  other  officials.  We  have  thus 
been  able  to  command  at  a  trifling  expense  a 
high  grade  of  labor. 


94  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

The  personal  equation  will,  of  course,  enter 
more  or  less  into  their  returns.  One  enumer- 
ator will  be  inclined  to  attribute  a  doubtful 
case  to  liquor,  when  another  will  not.  But 
we  can  rely  here  on  the  well-known  statistical 
law,  according  to  which  the  error  in  the  totals 
is  much  less  than  the  errors  in  the  individual 
investigations  which  go  to  form  the  totals. 
This  may  seem  paradoxical  to  persons  un- 
familiar with  statistics,  and  yet  it  rests  upon 
a  simple  observation.  Where  the  chances  are 
equally  good  that  an  observation  may  differ 
either  on  one  side  or  the  other  from  the  exact 
truth,  it  is  probable  that  in  the  mass  the 
errors  on  opposite  sides  will  balance  each 
other.  The  individual  bricks  turned  out  from 
a  kiln  might  differ  considerably  among  them- 
selves, yet  one  wall  of  one  hundred  courses 
of  bricks  will  differ  from  another  wall  with 
the  same  number  of  courses  but  very  little. 
A  careless  writer  will  sometimes  put  five 
words  in  a  Hue,  sometimes  ten,  yet  the  number 
of  words  in  a  hundred  lines  will  vary  little. 
On  the  same  principle  we  feel  that,  as  there 
was  no  bias  common  to  all  of  the  enumer- 
ators, whatever  personal  elements  may  have 
entered   into   the  returns  made  by  one  are 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  95 

pretty  apt  to  be  balanced  by  errors  of  the 
opposite  kind  made  in  some  other.  We  there- 
fore believe  that  our  method  is  a  good  one. 

As  regards  the  material  accuracy  of  our 
returns,  we  may  anticipate  that  they  will  be 
challenged  from  two  opposite  sides,  for  it  so 
happens  that  they  do  not  lean  to  either  ex- 
treme, but  fall,  as  it  were,  midway  between 
the  figures  hitherto  published.  It  was  claimed, 
6.  g.  a  generation  ago  by  De  Gerando,  who 
wrote  in  1839,  that  75  per  cent,  of  the  pau- 
per cases  in  the  United  States  were  caused  by 
drink,^  while  Charles  Loring  Brace  says  that 
two  thirds  of  the  crime  of  every  city  are  due 
to  drink.^  A  somewhat  similar  estimate  is 
made  by  Mr.  Boies,  who  says  that  alcohol  is 
the  direct  or  indirect  cause  of  75  per  cent,  of 
all  crimes,  and  50  per  cent,  of  all  the  suffer- 
ings endured  on  account  of  poverty.^ 

On  the  other  hand,  more  recent  investiga- 
tions place  the  percentage,  as  a  rule,  very 

*  De  Geraudo,  Bienfaisance  Puhlique,  vol.  i,  p.  318.  Tho 
author  refers  to  The  Christian  Almanack  for  1824,  and  to 
the  New  York  Observer,  vol.  vi,  as  authorities,  but  in  neither 
of  these  publications  could  any  justification  for  his  percent- 
age be  found. 

3  Dangerous  Classes  of  New  York,  pp.  65,  66,  1872. 

*  Prisoners  and  Paupers,  p.  137,  1893. 


9G  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

much  lower.  Mr.  Charles  Booth,  in  his  mon- 
umental investigation  into  the  poj)ulation  of 
East  London,  concludes  that  about  14  per 
cent,  of  the  poverty  in  classes  A  and  B  of  his 
investigation,  and  13  per  cent,  in  classes  C 
and  D,  may  be  attributed  to  liquor.  This  in- 
vestigation was  made,  not  into  the  "  profes- 
sional "  pauper  class,  so  to  speak,  but  into  the 
230or  of  London,  and  classes  A  and  B  included 
the  lowest  classes  of  the  community,  classes 
C  and  D  those  slightly  above  them.  In  his 
study  of  pauper  cases  in  the  workhouse  of 
Stepney,  he  attributes  15  per  cent,  to  drink 
and  immorality. 

Most  of  the  figures  hitherto  pubhshed  for 
our  country  fall  short  even  of  this.  The  fig- 
ures quoted  by  Professor  Warner  from  vari- 
ous charity  organization  societies  range  from 
21.9  per  cent,  to  4.9  per  cent.,  but  in  only 
two  cases  out  of  twelve  go  above  14  per  cent.^ 
The  cases  collected  by  the  New  York  Charity 
Organization  Society  in  1897  show  13  per 
cent,  of  liquor  cases,  while  similar  societies  in 
Baltimore  and  six  other  cities  yielded  about 
6  per  cent.  Still  smaller  are  the  figures  in 
Germany.    The  great  investigation  made  in 

^  A.  G.  Warner,  American  Chanties,  p.  34,  1894. 


ECONOMIC   ASPECTS  97 

1885  into  the  causes  of  pauperism  by  the 
Imperial  Statistical  Bureau  claimed  that  in 
only  2  per  cent,  of  the  cases  could  the  pau- 
perism be  attributed  to  the  abuse  of  liquor, 
while  Dr.  Boehmert's  study  of  77  German 
cities  gave  as  the  result  1.3  per  cent.  As  be- 
tween these  extremes  of  1.3  per  cent,  on  the 
one  hand  and  75  per  cent,  on  the  other,  where 
does  the  truth  lie  ?  We  must,  of  course,  un- 
derstand first  of  all  that  the  percentage  can- 
not be  expected  to  be  the  same  for  different 
countries,  or  different  parts  of  the  same  coun- 
try, or  different  periods.  The  Germans  fur- 
nish a  comparatively  small  number  of  cases 
in  our  investigation,  and  it  may  be  that  in 
Germany  those  who  come  under  official  poor 
relief  on  account  of  drink  may  be  less  numer- 
ous proportionately  than  the  same  class  in 
our  own  country.  It  should  also  be  noted 
that  the  German  figures  are  based,  not  upon 
an  official  investigation,  but  only  upon  the 
official  record  of  causes  as  stated,  in  most 
cases,  by  the  applicants  themselves.  That 
such  records  should  give  the  whole  truth  re- 
garding the  influence  of  liquor  upon  pauper- 
ism can  hardly  be  expected. 

The  general  statements  made  by  De  Ge- 


98  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

rando  and  Brace  are  not  to  be  taken  as  giving 
serious  statistical  facts.  Even  if  they  were 
approximately  true  at  the  time  at  which  they 
were  made,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  world 
has  made  progress  in  half  a  century,  and  that 
were  De  Gerando  or  Brace  to  make  a  similar 
investigation  now,  they  might  reach  a  less 
discouraging  conclusion.  We  must  not,  there- 
fore, expect  absolute  agreement  between  the 
figures  of  different  times,  different  conditions, 
and  different  countries. 

We  should,  however,  expect  to  find  agree- 
ment between  the  contemporaneous  figures 
in  the  same  country  with  a  homogeneous 
population,  or  at  least  to  be  able  to  explain 
discrepancies,  and  there  is  an  undoubted  dis- 
crepancy between  the  results  of  our  investi- 
gation and  the  results  hitherto  gleaned  from 
the  record  of  cases  kept  by  the  charity  organ- 
ization societies.  Our  own  figures,  based  upon 
the  investigation  of  such  societies,  show  25 
per  cent,  of  the  cases  investigated  to  be  due 
to  the  use  of  liquor,  either  on  the  part  of  the 
appHcants  themselves,  or  of  other  persons. 
To  take  individual  societies,  the  New  York 
society  returned  in  our  investigation  23  per 
cent,  in  the  aggregate  and  Baltimore  21  per 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  99 

cent.  The  discrepancy  between  these  figures 
and  those  previously  published  is  partly  due 
to  the  fact  that  our  figures  include  liquor  as 
an  indirect  cause,  while  the  others  only  con- 
sider it  as  a  direct  cause.  Thus,  while  New 
York  returned  an  aggregate  of  23  per  cent. 
of  liquor  cases,  in  only  19.5  per  cent,  was 
liquor  a  direct  cause,  while  Baltimore  returned 
an  aggregate  of  21  per  cent.,  of  which  liquor 
•was  a  direct  cause  in  only  11  per  cent.  This 
fact  explains  the  discrepancy  in  part.  The 
rest  must  be  attributed  to  the  greater  care 
exercised  by  the  agents  in  studying  up  indi- 
vidual cases  for  us.  It  is  often  difficult  to  de- 
cide whether  or  not  a  case  of  poverty  is  due 
to  liquor,  and  in  making  the  general  statis- 
tics published  in  annual  reports,  there  is  a 
natural  tendency  to  understate  this  cause  on 
account  of  the  very  difficulty  of  getting  the 
facts.  In  addition  to  this,  there  is  a  very 
proper  desire  to  give  doubtful  cases  the  bene- 
fit of  the  doubt  in  making  a  record  which 
may  in  the  future  determine  the  treatment  of 
individuals,  lest  the  statement  that  the  appli- 
cant has  become  poor  through  liquor  should 
prejudice  his  case,  when  he  applies  for  relief. 
Our  own  investigation  was  stated  to  be,  at 


100  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

the  outset,  purely  impersonal.  It  was  to  have 
no  effect  upon  the  treatment  of  individuals. 
This  would  in  itself  prevent  the  lowering  of 
the  percentage  in  doubtful  cases.  Moreover, 
the  attention  of  the  agents  being  especially 
directed  to  one  point,  they  naturally  made  a 
more  careful  study,  and  detected  liquor  cases 
which  might  otherwise  have  escaped  their 
attention.  We  are  confident  that  there  was 
no  desire  on  the  part  of  the  agents  to  make 
out  large  averages.  Their  instructions  were 
carefully  given  in  advance,  and  they  were 
told  that  we  wanted  nothing  but  the  truth. 
They  were  likewise  instructed  that,  in  the 
doubtful  cases  which  often  arise,  they  were 
not  to  attribute  a  person's  poverty  to  liquor 
simply  because  he  might,  at  some  time  in  the 
past,  have  used  up  for  drink  a  part  of  his  in- 
come which,  if  prudently  saved,  would  have 
carried  him  over  a  period  of  hard  times.  In 
other  words,  we  did  not  think  it  fair  to  as- 
sume that  all  that  was  spent  upon  liquor 
would  otherwise  have  been  saved.  That  would 
have  implied  an  amount  of  forethought  on 
the  part  of  the  poor  which  does  not  exist. 
Poverty  was  not  to  be  attributed  to  drink, 
unless  the  connection  was  direct  and  imme- 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  101 

diate,  as,  e.  g.  unless  drink  led  to  loss  of  em- 
ployment, or  prevented  the  person  from  get- 
ting a  situation,  or  unless  he  was  known  to 
drink  to  excess. 

For  these  reasons  we  feel  considerable  con- 
fidence in  the  fairness  of  our  figures,  a  confi- 
dence  which  is  confirmed  by  the  results  them- 
selves. The  figures  from  different  parts  of 
the  country  generally  show  a  small  divergence 
from  the  mean,  and  in  all  cases  in  which  this 
divergence  is  at  all  considerable,  it  can  be 
easily  explained  by  special  local  conditions. 
The  very  fact  that  the  figures  do  not  go  to 
one  extreme  or  the  other  is,  to  the  minds  of 
many,  an  indication  of  their  fairness.  In 
short,  while  we  do  not  claim  absolute  mathe- 
matical accuracy  for  statistics  based  upon 
rather  uncertain  moral  phenomena,  we  do 
believe  that  the  results  are  as  reliable  as  cir- 
cmnstances  will  permit.  Fmally,  they  are 
confirmed  in  the  only  case  in  which  we  have 
the  means  of  making  a  direct  comparison 
with  figures  obtained  under  similar  condi- 
tions. An  investigation  into  the  relations  of 
liquor  to  pauperism  and  crime  was  under- 
,  taken  in  1895  by  the  Massachusetts  Bureau 
^of  Labor  Statistics,  an  office  which  enjoys 


\ 


102  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

a  well-earned  reputation  for  accuracy  and 
skill.  The  results  of  this  investigation  were 
published  in  the  26th  Annual  Report  of 
the  Bureau,  and  show  that  in  Massachu- 
setts about  39  per  cent,  of  the  paupers  in 
almshouses  had  been  brought  to  their  condi- 
tion by  the  personal  use  of  liquor,  and  that 
about  10  per  cent,  had  come  there  through 
the  intemperate  habits  of  parents,  guardians, 
or  others.  Our  figures,  based  upon  alms- 
houses throughout  the  country,  give  an  ag- 
gregate of  a  little  less  than  33  per  cent,  of 
cases  due  to  the  personal  use  of  liquor,  and 
about  8.7  per  cent,  due  to  the  intemperate 
habits  of  others.  While  our  figures  are 
slightly  below  those  for  Massachusetts,  they 
are  much  nearer  to  them  than  to  any  other 
sets  of  figures  quoted,  and  this  fact  is  an  im- 
portant evidence  of  their  general  accuracy. 

IV.    SUMMARY  OF  RESULTS 

The  special  investigation  of  the  Economic 
Sub-Committee  relates,  as  has  been  stated, 
only  to  certain  of  the  economic  phases  of  the 
liquor  problem.  The  report  of  the  Department 
of  Labor  relates  to  certain  other  phases.  In- 
asmuch as  both  investigations  were  planned 


ECONOMIC   ASPECTS  103 

SO  as  to  supplement  each  other,  a  survey  of 
the  economic  aspects  of  the  Hquor  problem 
should  give  the  results  of  both  investigations 
and  show  their  bearing  upon  each  other. 
These  two  reports  taken  together  disclose  the 
positive  and  negative  aspects  of  the  case. 
The  report  of  the  Department  of  Labor  gives 
us  a  view  of  the  wealth  represented  in  the  pro- 
duction and  sale  of  intoxicating  drinks.  It 
states  how  much  of  the  product  of  the  farm 
goes  into  the  production  of  liquor ;  how  great 
is  the  value  of  the  annual  product ;  how  much 
capital  is  invested  in  making  and  retailing 
intoxicants ;  how  many  persons  derive  their 
livelihood  from  the  traffic  ;  and  how  large  an 
amount  is  contributed  by  it  towards  paying 
the  expenses  of  national,  state,  and  local 
governments. 

The  report  of  the  Economic  Sub-Commit- 
tee shows  us  the  reverse  of  the  medal.  We 
see  here  a  large  part  of  the  destruction  of 
wealth  and  of  human  capital  caused  by  this 
same  agency.  We  learn  what  fraction  of 
pauperism,  destitution,  and  crime  may  be 
fairly  attributed  to  liquor,  and  how  this  loss 
is  distributed  among  different  classes  and 
races. 


104  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

From  the  facts  thus  ascertained  we  shall 
also  draw  conclusions  which  may  be  of  prac- 
tical use  in  dealing  with  the  problem.  For 
while  the  wealth  represented  by  and  the  num- 
ber of  persons  interested  in  the  liquor  traffic 
indicate  the  economic  forces  which  resist  ef- 
forts to  restrict  the  consumption  of  intoxi- 
cants, other  facts,  which  will  be  referred  to 
in  their  proper  place,  will  show  us  some  of 
the  economic  forces  which  work  against  the 
traffic,  and  which  powerfully  promote  tem- 
perance. 

Magnitude  of  the  Liquor  Interest. 

Looking  first  at  the  report  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Labor,  we  learn  that  the  farm  pro- 
duce consumed  in  the  production  of  various 
kinds  of  liquors  in  1896  was  about  58,000,- 
000  bushels,  if  we  add  together  the  differ- 
ent grains  alone.  This  included  about  0.93 
per  cent,  of  the  consumption  of  corn,  11.27 
per  cent,  of  the  consumption  of  rye,  and 
40.44  per  cent,  of  the  consumption  of  bar- 
ley (p.  31).  The  total  product  of  all  kinds  of 
liquors  in  1890  was  $289,775,639,  of  which 
$182,731,622  was  represented  by  malt  li- 
quors, $104,197,869  by  distilled  liquors,  and 


\ 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  105 

$2,846,148  by  vinous  liquors  (p.  27).  The 
capital  invested  in  the  liquor  traffic  of  all 
kinds  was  estimated  in  1896  at  over  $957,- 
000,000  (p.  50),  of  which  59  per  cent,  was 
found  in  the  retail  trade  exclusively,  and  15 
per  cent,  in  the  retail  trade  combined  with 
some  other  business.  The  total  revenue  col- 
lected in  1896  by  the  Federal  Government, 
States,  counties,  and  cities,  was  about  $183,- 
213,124  (p.  65).  It  is  estimated  that  no  less 
than  191,519  proprietors  of  establishments 
are  interested  in  different  forms  of  the  liquor 
traffic,  and  that  they  employ  241,755  per- 
sons. A  great  many  of  these  people  devote 
only  a  part  of  their  time  to  the  liquor  traffic. 
It  is  estimated  that  it  would  have  required 
172,931  employees  to  carry  on  the  business, 
if  they  had  devoted  their  entire  time  to  it 
(p.  51).  Adding  together  the  employees  and 
the  proprietors,  we  thus  learn  that  the  liquor 
traffic  suffices  to  give  employment  to  over 
364,000  persons,  and  if  we  assume  that  each 
of  these  breadwinners  maintains  on  the  aver- 
age a  family  of  four  persons  besides  himself, 
we  have  a  sum  total  of  over  1,800,000  jDcr- 
sons  deriving  their  support  directly  from  the 
manufacture  of   and   traffic  in  intoxicants, 


106  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

entirely  apart  from  the  farmers  who  produce 
the  raw  material,  and  the  transportation  agen- 
cies which  transport  it.  This  would  represent 
a  population  as  great  as  the  combined  popu- 
lation of  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  Rhode 
Island,  and  Connecticut  in  1890,  and  would 
be  about  three  quarters  of  the  population  of 
the  colonies  at  the  time  of  the  revolt  against 
Great  Britain.  These  figures  give  us  some 
idea  of  the  magnitude  of  the  economic  inter- 
ests represented  by  the  traffic. 

The  economist  naturally  asks,  however, 
whether  all  of  this  wealth  and  all  of  this 
activity  constitute  a  real  addition  to  the 
economic  power  of  the  country.  Whether 
alcohol  is  a  poison  or  a  food  is  a  question  for 
physiologists,  not  for  statisticians,  and  we  do 
not  propose  to  enter  into  it  here.  Whatever 
its  possible  effects  may  be  upon  the  human 
system  in  small  doses,  all  agree  that,  when 
taken  in  excess,  it  may  diminish  the  power 
to  labor,  and  lead  to  poverty  and  crime.  By 
measuring  the  effects  of  Hquor  which  involve 
a  direct  charge  upon  the  public,  we  may  thus 
ascertain  a  part  of  the  loss  of  wealth  occa- 
sioned by  intoxicants.  We  do  not,  of  course, 
pretend   to   estimate   the   total  loss  to  the 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  107 

country.  We  cannot,  for  example,  tell  how 
heavy  is  the  bui'den  borne  in  silence  by  fam- 
ilies and  individuals  on  account  of  the  drink- 
ing habits  of  relatives,  nor  can  we  ascertain 
to  what  extent  disease,  or  loss  of  vitality,  or 
of  productive  power  is  occasioned  by  liquor 
in  those  who  may  still  be  self-supporting,  but 
are  not  as  efficient  wealth  producers  as  they 
otherwise  would  be.  Looking,  then,  simply 
at  the  burden  entailed  upon  the  public,  it  nat- 
urally divides  itself  into  two  general  classes, 
that  occasioned  by  poverty,  and  that  occa- 
sioned by  crime.  In  the  former,  again,  we 
must  distinguish  between  the  poverty  treated 
in  almshouses,  the  poverty  treated  by  private 
charities,  and  the  destitution  of  children 
treated  by  special  institutions  estabHshed  for 
them.  Inasmuch  as  the  percentages  for  vari- 
ous classes  in  the  figures  derived  from  private 
charities  run  closely  parallel  to  those  derived 
from  almshouses,  differing  somewhat  in  their 
aggregate,  but  differing  comparatively  little 
in  their  relations  to  each  other,  we  may  very 
properly  treat  all  the  various  forms  of  desti- 
tution together. 


108  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

Poverty  due  to  Liquor 

In  studying  the  causes  of  poverty,  we  are 
confronted  with  a  very  obvious  difficulty  in 
that  individual  cases  may  often  be  attributed 
to  more  than  one  cause.  Thus  a  person  may 
be  at  once  intemperate  and  lazy;  another 
may  have  met  with  special  misfortune,  but 
at  the  same  time  be  shiftless  ;  a  third  may  be 
sick  from  a  disease  which  might  have  been 
avoided  by  more  regular  habits.  The  ideal 
method  of  investigation  would  be  to  combine 
the  causes  in  such  a  way  as  to  show  their 
relative  importance.  This  point  of  view  was 
emphasized  by  Professor  Warner  and  Dr. 
Dike  before  the  American  Statistical  Associa- 
tion,* and  more  recently  some  special  arith- 
metical methods  of  showing  these  complex 
relations  have  been  proposed.^  In  investigat- 
ing a  single  cause,  however,  it  was  obviously 
impossible  to  adopt  any  such  method ;  and 
it  seemed  better,  especially  as  no  statistical 

*  See  Publications  of  the  American  Statistical  Association, 
vol.  i,  pp.  184  and  201. 

2  On  this  subject  see  "  A  Statistical  Study,"  by  A.  M. 
Simons,  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  March,  1898,  pp. 
C14-G22  ;  and  "  A  New  •  National  Blank,'  "  by  Philip  W. 
Ayres,  Charities  Review,  December,  1898,  p.  409. 


ECONOMIC   ASPECTS  109 

method  for  accomplishing  this  difficult  task 
had  been  generally  accepted  among  econ- 
omists, simply  to  ask  the  question  whether 
or  not  the  use  of  liquor  had  been  a  cause  of 
poverty  in  the  cases  investigated.  In  many 
of  the  cases  which  make  up  our  totals,  it  is 
to  be  assumed  that  other  causes  contributed 
to  the  impecunious  condition  of  the  subject. 
It  is  also  to  be  understood  that  in  no  case 
was  intemperance  given  as  the  cause  of  pov- 
erty, unless  it  was  so  important  that  without 
it  the  poverty  would  probably  not  have  ex- 
isted, and  unless  it  was  obviously  the  princi- 
pal and  determining  cause. 

As  a  general  result  of  our  investigation,  we 
may  state  that,  of  the  poverty  which  comes 
under  the  view  of  the  charity  organization 
societies,  about  25  per  cent,  can  be  traced  di- 
rectly or  indirectly  to  Hquor,  18  per  cent,  of 
the  persons  studied  having  brought  on  their 
poverty  through  the  personal  use  of  liquor, 
and  9  per  cent,  attributing  it  to  the  intem- 
perance of  parents  or  others.  The  general 
percentage  is  less  than  the  sum  of  the  partial 
percentages,  because  in  some  cases  liquor  acted 
both  as  a  direct  and  as  an  indirect  cause.  Of 
the  poverty  found  in  almshouses,  37  per  cent. 


/ 


110  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

can  be  traced  to  liquor,  and  of  this  again  32 
per  cent,  is  due  to  the  personal  habits  of 
the  inmates,  and  8  per  cent,  to  the  intemper- 
ance of  others.  In  the  case  of  the  destitution 
of  children,  not  less  than  45  per  cent,  was 
found  to  be  due  to  the  liquor  habits,  either 
of  parents,  guardians,  or  others.  While  we 
cannot  state  in  the  aggregate  how  large  a 
burden  this  represents  for  the  United  States, 
our  percentages  enable  any  one  to  estimate 
with  a  fair  degree  of  accuracy  how  great  the 
burden  in  any  fairly  representative  State  or 
subdivision  of  a  State  may  be,  of  which  the 
total  can  be  ascertained. 

It  is  not  enough,  however,  to  get  general 
figures,  since  they  include  many  heterogene- 
ous elements ;  perhaps  more  important  and 
more  valuable  are  the  figures  which  show  the 
different  percentages  for  different  classes  of 
the  community.  Our  tables  and  the  report 
of  Mr.  Koren  give  the  figures  in  detail.  In 
this  place  it  will  suffice  to  bring  out  the  more 
salient  results,  showing  the  difference  (1) 
between  the  sexes ;  (2)  between  those  of 
different  political  condition ;  (3)  between 
different  occupations;  and  finally  between 
different  races  and  nationalities  in  the  United 
States. 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  111 

Looking  first  of  all  at  sex,  we  find,  as  we 
should  expect,  a  great  preponderance  of  cases 
of  the  male  sex.  Of  the  male  paupers  in 
almshouses  over  42  per  cent.,  of  the  women 
only  16|  per  cent.,  came  to  their  poverty 
through  the  use  of  Hquor.  If,  however,  we 
look  at  liquor  as  an  indirect  cause,  we  find 
the  figures  reversed.  While  only  6  per  cent, 
of  the  men  owed  then*  poverty  to  the  intem- 
perate habits  of  others,  12.7  per  cent,  of  the 
women  were  in  this  unfortunate  condition. 
A  still  greater  contrast  is  found  in  the  case 
of  the  applicants  for  private  charity.  Of  such 
male  applicants  22.7  per  cent,  became  poor 
on  account  of  liquor,  and  of  females  only 
12.4  per  cent. ;  but  again,  if  we  look  at 
liquor  as  an  indirect  cause,  we  find  that  only 
3.8  per  cent,  of  the  men  could  charge  their 
poverty  upon  the  intemperance  of  others, 
while  17  per  cent,  of  the  women  could  do  so. 
The  picture  which  these  figures  call  up  of 
the  lives  of  women  ruined  by  the  intemper- 
ance of  their  husbands  or  fathers  is  too  sig- 
nificant to  need  any  comment. 

If  we  compare  the  political  condition  of 
the  poor,  the  contrast  between  classes  is  not 
as  striking,    but   still   important.     Looking 


112  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

first  at  the  paupers  in  almshouses,  we  find 
that,  while  32  per  cent,  in  the  aggregate  owed 
their  condition  to  the  personal  use  of  liquor, 
these  were  distributed  very  unequally  among 
the  different  classes.    The  aliens  make  the 
most  favorable  showing,  and  give  only  23 
per  cent,  of  liquor  cases ;  the  citizens  born 
come  next  with  an  average  of  29  per  cent., 
while  the  naturalized  citizens  figure  to  the 
extent  of  43  per  cent.    The  cases  due  to  the 
intemperate  habits  of  others  show  less  differ- 
ence in  the  percentages.    The  returns  from 
the   charity   organization   societies   tell   the 
same  story.    While  among  aUens  only  14  per 
cent,  have  become  destitute  through  the  per- 
sonal use  of  liquor,  the  citizens  born  return 
17  per  cent,  of  such  cases,  and  the  naturalized 
citizens  25  per  cent.    These  figures  do  not 
justify  the  inference  that  naturalization  stim- 
ulates the  hquor  habit.    They  are  probably 
explained  by  the  fact  that  those  nationalities 
which  are  most  apt,  on  account  of  the  lan- 
guage, to  claim  naturalization  —  such  as  the 
Irish,  the  Scotch,  the  Canadians  —  happen 
also  to  be  those  nationalities  which  are  espe- 
cially addicted  to  drink.    Thus  many  of  them, 
when  they  have  lived  in  the  United  States 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  113 

long  enough  to  obtain  naturalization,  have 
become  demoralized  by  the  high  wages  that 
they  receive  and  drink  to  excess. 

The  tables  with  regard  to  parentage  bring 
out  a  good  many  facts  which  will  well  repay 
study  in  detail.  A  single  one  will  here  be  re- 
ferred to.  In  the  tables  regarding  pauperism, 
it  appears  that,  while  those  who  have  two 
foreign  parents  show  more  cases  of  pauperism 
due  to  liquor  than  those  whose  parents  are 
native,  those  who  have  a  foreign  father  and  a 
native  mother  give  a  higher  percentage  than 
either.  The  percentage  of  pauperism  due  to 
the  personal  use  of  liquor  when  both  parents 
are  native  is  26 ;  when  both  parents  are 
foreign,  it  is  35  ;  and  when  the  father  is 
foreign  and  the  mother  native,  it  is  41. 
When  the  conditions  are  reversed,  the  father 
being  native  and  the  mother  foreign,  the 
percentage  is  only  31. 

In  the  tables  based  upon  the  returns  of 
the  charity  organization  societies,  we  do  not 
find  quite  the  same  contrast,  the  percentage 
of  cases  due  to  intemperance  being  about  the 
same  for  those  who  have  a  foreign  father 
and  a  native  mother  as  for  those  whose  two 
parents  are  foreign.  In  both  cases  it  is  a 


114  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

little  over  21  per  cent.,  but  we  still  find  that 
the  combination  of  a  foreign  father  with  a 
native  mother  is  worse  than  the  combination 
of  a  native  father  with  a  foreign  mother.  It 
may  be  that  this  fact  is  explained  by  the 
consideration  that  native  women  who  marry 
foreigners  do  not,  as  a  rule,  belong  to  the 
most  steady  and  conservative  classes.  But 
whatever  the  true  explanation  may  be,  the 
fact  is  in  itself  worthy  of  consideration. 

Particularly  interesting  are  the  returns 
which  distinguish  nationalities  and  races. 
In  a  country  which  has  so  many  race  pro- 
blems to  solve,  this  part  of  the  investigation 
must  have  a  very  practical  bearing  upon  pos- 
itive methods.  The  comparison  of  races  is 
somewhat  vitiated  by  the  fact  that  many  of 
them  are  but  feebly  represented  in  the  tables, 
and  that,  therefore,  the  percentages  must  be 
more  accidental  than  in  the  case  in  which  we 
have  very  large  numbers.  Thus,  if  we  look 
at  the  charity  organization  figures  first,  we 
find  that  those  nations  which  show  the  small- 
est percentages  of  liquor  cases  are  Italy,  Rus- 
sia, Austria,  and  Poland,  but  in  all  of  these 
the  totals  are  small.  If  we  take  the  rest, 
wliich  are  more  largely  represented,  we  find 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  115 

that  Germany  leads,  only  14  per  cent,  of  their 
applicants  being  chargeable  to  the  liquor 
habit.  Norway  and  Sweden  follow  with  IG 
per  cent.,  the  United  States  with  17  per 
cent.,  England  with  18  per  cent.,  while  Can- 
ada and  Scotland  show  21  per  cent.,  and 
Ireland  29  per  cent. 

The  relative  rank  of  the  different  nation- 
alities, as  given  in  these  figures,  is  strikingly 
confirmed  by  the  returns  from  the  alms- 
houses. The  percentages  themselves  are  nat- 
urally all  higher,  but  the  different  nations 
come  in  almost  exactly  the  same  order.  Here 
we  find  that  the  Italians,  Poles,  and  Austrians 
lead,  with  percentages  running  from  9  to  14  ; 
next  come  the  Germans  with  25  per  cent., 
the  Scandinavians  with  27  per  cent.,  the 
native-born  with  29  per  cent.,  the  Canadians 
with  32  per  cent.,  the  English  and  Scotch 
with  39  per  cent.,  and  the  Irish  with  40  per 
cent. 

If  we  compare  the  Caucasian  race  with 
the  Nesfroes  on  the  one  hand  and  the  native 
Indians  on  the  other,  we  find  that  the  liquor 
habit  is  apparently  not  very  prevalent  among 
the  Negroes.  They  show  an  aggregate  of  but 
9  per  cent,  in  the  charity  organization  socie- 


116  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

ties,  and  of  17  per  cent,  in  the  almshouses,  as 
compared  with  19  per  cent,  and  33  per  cent, 
for  white  people  in  the  same  schedules,  and 
these  figures  are  strikingly  confirmed  by  the 
careful,  detailed  reports  made  by  a  large 
number  of  correspondents  in  the  South,  as 
well  as  by  the  personal  investigations  of  Mr. 
Koren.  Indeed,  the  Negroes,  being  with  few 
exceptions  native  born,  lower  the  average  for 
the  native-born  Americans,  which  would  be 
about  19  per  cent,  in  the  charity  organization 
societies,  were  it  not  for  the  Negro  element. 
The  Indians,  on  the  other  hand,  though  they 
do  not  appear  in  any  of  our  statistics,  ob- 
viously represent  the  other  extreme,  and  from 
\  the  reports  of  Indian  agents  and  other  corre- 
spondents, it  appears  that  they  drink  more 
for  the  sake  of  intoxication  and  less  for  social 
pleasure  than  any  other  race  in  our  country, 
and  that  the  effects  of  Hquor  upon  them  are 
worse.  While  the  Negro  recovers  rapidly  from 
the  effects  of  drink,  the  drunken  Indian  is  a 
person  whom  it  is  well  to  avoid. 

We  cannot  draw  conclusions  from  a  study 
of  occupations  with  the  confidence  which  we 
feel  in  studying  the  different  races,  partly 
because  it  was  not  feasible  to  collect  occupa- 


ECONOMIC   ASPECTS  117 

tion  statistics  from  the  private  societies,  and 
partly  because  the  occupations  considered  are 
so  numerous  that,  in  many  cases,  the  totals 
for  each  occupation  are  very  small,  and  the 
percentages  are  liable  to  be  accidental.  Such 
figures  as  we  have  show,  however,  that  the 
saloon-keepers  lead  :  84  per  cent,  of  those 
enumerated  in  almshouses  are  found  to  owe 
their  condition  to  the  use  of  liquor.  Next 
come  the  sailors  with  58  per  cent.,  the  butch- 
ers with  57  per  cent.,  the  printers  and  iron  and 
steel  workers  with  55  per  cent.  each.  In  gen- 
eral, the  more  skillful  occupations  do  not 
make  a  favorable  showing  as  compared  with 
the  unskilled.  Thus  the  iron  and  steel  work- 
ers and  printers,  the  cooks  and  waiters,  the 
machinists,  all  give  a  percentage  of  50  or  over, 
while  laborers  show  but  44  per  cent.,  mill 
operatives  43  per  cent.,  and  farmers  33  per 
cent.  The  intemperance  of  sailors  is  a  familiar 
phenomenon,  due  partly  to  the  fact  that  their 
life  precludes  the  formation  of  a  high  stand- 
ard of  living  or  a  settled  domestic  existence, 
and  that,  therefore,  when  turned  adrift  on 
land,  they  are  very  apt  to  spend  their  earnings 
in  sensual  enjoyment.  In  the  case  of  the 
printers,  machinists,  and  iron  and  steel  work- 


118  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

ers,  it  is  probable  that  their  intemperance  is 
due  to  the  strain  of  working  under  high 
pressure,  and  to  the  exhaustion  produced  by 
unsanitary  conditions.  It  should  be  said, 
however,  that  these  figures  do  not  necessarily 
measure  the  intemperance  of  the  various  oc- 
cupations. We  have  counted,  not  the  whole 
of  the  trade,  but  only  those  members  of  the 
trade  who  are  in  almshouses.  In  general,  the 
higher  the  earnings  of  any  person,  the  less 
likely  is  he  to  become  a  pauper  except  through 
some  fault  of  his  own.  We  should,  therefore, 
naturally  look  for  a  large  percentage  of  liquor 
cases  in  the  better  paid  occupations.  This 
same  consideration  should  be  borne  in  mind 
in  interpreting  the  figures  relating  to  other 
classes  of  paupers. 

The  charity  organization  societies  deal  in 
the  main  with  adults,  as  do  also  the  alms- 
houses. As  shown  by  our  statistics,  45  per 
cent,  of  the  inmates  of  almshouses  enter  be- 
tween the  ages  of  fifty  and  sixty-nine.  In 
order  to  get  a  fair  view,  therefore,  of  the 
poverty  occasioned  by  drink,  it  is  necessary 
to  make  a  special  investigation  of  destitute 
children.  While  the  number  of  children 
studied  by  us  is  only  5136  as  against  some 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  119 

37,000  adults,  we  believe  that  we  have  cov- 
ered sufficient  ground  to  indicate  fairly  how 
large  a  part  of  the  destitution  of  children  is 
due  to  the  abuse  of  liquor.  This  part  of  the 
study  was  made  through  three  different  agen- 
cies :  through  societies  for  the  prevention 
of  cruelty  to  children  and  humane  societies, 
deahng  chiefly  with  children  of  the  lowest 
class ;  through  state  organizations  of  the 
National  Children's  Home  Society,  dealing 
with  many  illegitimate  infants ;  and  through 
two  state  public  schools,  which  are,  in  fact, 
state  orphan  asylums.  The  general  average 
derived  from  these  cases  shows  that  nearly 
45  per  cent,  of  the  children  harbored  owed 
their  destitution  to  the  intemperance  of  par- 
ents, while  nearly  46  per  cent,  owed  their 
destitution  to  the  intemperance  of  parents 
and  others  together.  The  worst  phase  of  the 
poverty  occasioned  by  drink  is  thus  seen  to 
be  in  the  fact,  not  that  the  drinker  himself 
suffers,  but  that  innocent  persons  suffer  still 
more. 

When  we  distinguish  between  the  white 
and  the  colored  children,  we  find  the  same 
contrast,  though  not  so  marked,  as  was  found 
in  the  case  of  pauperism  and  poor  rehef,  for 


120  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

of  colored  children,  only  39  per  cent,  owed 
their  condition  to  the  drinking  habits  of 
parents  or  guardians,  while  nearly  46  per 
cent,  of  the  white  children  were  in  this  con- 
dition. Comparing  children  of  native-born 
parents  with  those  of  foreign  extraction,  we 
find,  as  we  found  in  the  other  studies,  that 
the  native  Americans  appear  to  advantage 
as  compared  with  foreigners ;  43^  per  cent, 
represented  the  proportion  of  children  of 
native  parents,  and  49^  per  cent,  the  propor- 
tion of  children  of  foreign  parents  whose 
poverty  was  brought  on  by  liquor.  If  we 
still  further  analyze  the  parental  condition 
of  these  children,  we  find,  as  might  naturally 
be  expected,  that  those  whose  father  was 
foreign  and  mother  unknown  furnished  the 
largest  percentage  of  liquor  cases,  nearly 
60^  per  cent,  in  all,  even  more  than  were 
found  where  both  parents  were  unknown. 
We  also  find  that  those  who  had  a  foreign 
father  and  a  native  mother  supplied  a  larger 
percentage  of  liquor  cases  than  those  who 
had  a  native  father  and  foreign  mother. 
These  fiofures  confirm  the  results  obtained 
from  the  study  of  pauperism  and  poverty, 
and  indicate  that,  for  some  reason,  the  com- 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  121 

bination  of  a  foreign  father  with  a  native 
mother,  or  a  mother  of  unknown  nationaHtj, 
is  particularly  unfavorable  to  temperance. 

Crime  due  to  Liquor. 

The  study  of  crime  offers  peculiar  diffi- 
culties. Crime  being  an  intentional  act,  the 
causes  must  be  facts  which  influence  the 
motives  of  men.  And  as  the  motives  of  men 
are  often  mixed,  it  is  evident  that  several  mo- 
tives may  combine  to  cause  a  crime.  Crime 
cannot,  therefore,  be  attributed  to  a  single 
cause  as  easily  as  poverty.  This  fact  has 
necessitated  a  somewhat  complicated  method 
of  classification,  under  which  we  have  en- 
deavored to  ascertain,  not  only  how  far  in- 
temperance was  a  cause  of  crime,  but  also 
how  far  it  was  a  first,  second,  or  third  cause, 
and  also  how  far  it  was  found  combined 
with  other  leading  causes,  notably  unfavor- 
able environment  and  lack  of  industrial  train- 
ing, in  bringing  about  crime.  We  have  also 
been  obliged  to  make  a  further  distinction, 
and  to  separate  crimes  against  the  person 
from  those  against  property.  Our  tables  are 
thus  much  more  intricate  than  those  relat- 
ing to  pauperism  and  poor  relief,  but  they 


122  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

also  contain  many  facts  which  go  beyond  the 
immediate  scope  of  our  investigation,  and 
which  cannot  fail  to  be  of  value  to  the  crim- 
inologist. The  danger  of  making  sweeping 
statements  with  regard  to  intemperance  as  a 
cause  of  crime  is  nowhere  better  illustrated 
than  in  this  section  of  our  investigation,  and 
the  reader  cannot  be  too  strongly  urged  to 
study  carefully  for  himself  the  tables  and  the 
explanation  of  them  given  by  Mr.  Koren  be- 
fore trying  to  reach  general  conclusions.  He 
should  also  be  cautioned  against  the  attempt 
to  compare  our  figures  with  those  based  upon 
different  classes  of  offenders.  The  statistics 
collected  by  this  committee  relate  only  to 
convicts  in  State  prisons  and  State  reformato- 
ries. They  do  not  include  ordinary  jails,  and, 
therefore,  do  not  take  account  of  persons 
convicted  for  mere  misdemeanors,  drunken- 
ness, or  violation  of  the  liquor  laws.  A  few 
only  of  the  leading  results  need  be  referred 
to  here. 

The  investigation  covered  13,402  convicts 
in  seventeen  prisons  and  reformatories  scat- 
tered throughout  twelve  States.  It  was  con- 
ducted with  great  care,  in  many  instances  by 
the  chaplains,  in  others  by  the  sujDerintend- 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  123 

ents  of  the  institutions  in  question.  Of  the 
total  number  of  cases  thus  investigated,  it 
appeared  that  intemperance  figured  as  one 
of  the  causes  of  crime  in  nearly  50  per  cent. 
It  was,  however,  a  first  cause  in  only  31  per 
cent.  While,  therefore,  intemperance  appears 
to  contribute  to  crime  in  nearly  half  the 
cases  investigated  by  us,  a  result  -which  is 
strikingly  confirmed  by  the  investigation  of 
the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics 
for  that  State,  it  was  almost  always  only  one 
of  several  causes,  and  appeared  as  a  leading 
cause  in  less  than  a  third,  and  as  the  sole 
cause  in  but  16  per  cent.  The  difference 
between  the  importance  of  liquor  as  a  cause 
of  crimes  against  property  and  of  crimes 
against  the  person  is  surprisingly  small.  It 
is,  as  would  be  expected,  somewhat  more 
prominent  in  crimes  against  the  person,  51^ 
per  cent,  of  such  crimes  being  attributed  to 
liquor,  either  on  the  part  of  the  criminal  or 
of  others ;  but  even  in  the  case  of  crimes 
against  property,  the  percentage  is  49^. 

As  in  pauperism,  however,  we  find  con- 
siderable differences  in  the  showing  made 
by  different  nationalities ;  and  the  order  in 
which  the  races  are  ranked,  when  we  con- 


124  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

sider  intemperance  as  a  cause  in  general  of 
crime,  is  similar  to  the  order  in  which  they 
are  ranked  when  we  consider  it  as  a  cause  of 
pauperism,  though  the  two  are  not  identical. 
Thus  the  smallest  percentage  of  crime  due  to 
intemperance,  25  per  cent.,  is  furnished  by 
the  Kussians.    Next  come  the  Austrians  with 
34.62  per  cent.,  the  Germans  with  44.87  per 
cent.,  the  Italians   with   50   per   cent.,  the 
Americans   with   50.23  per  cent.,  the  Eng- 
lish  with   52.92  per  cent.,  the  Poles  -with 
53.41  per  cent.,  the  Scandinavians  with  56.25 
per  cent.,  the  Irish  with  56.70  per  cent.,  the 
Canadians  with  56.74  per  cent.,  the  Scotch 
with  58.33  per  cent.    This  table  takes  no  ac- 
count of  the  Negro  race,  who  constitute  but 
2000  of  the  total  jail  population  studied.   If 
we  compare  them  with  the  w^hites,  we  find  a 
sinjrular  contrast  to  the  results  of  the  tables 
on  pauperism  and  poverty ;  for  while  intem- 
perance was  a  cause  of  poverty  in  but  very 
few  cases  among  the  Negroes,  it  appears  as  a 
cause  of  crime  in  a  larger  proportion  of  cases 
than  among  the  whites.    This  apparent  con- 
tradiction finds  its  explanation  in  the  fact 
already  mentioned,  that  while  the  effects  of 
liquor  upon  the  Negro  are  apt  to  be  tempo- 


ECONOMIC   ASPECTS  125 

rary,  they  are,  at  the  same  time,  more  acute. 
Thus  a  Negro  under  the  influence  of  Hquor 
is  much  more  apt  to  commit  some  impulsive 
crime  than  a  white  man.  He  is,  however,  less 
apt  to  become  permanently  a  slave  of  the 
habit  and  thus  to  sink  into  pauperism. 

The  Saloon. 

Having  considered  the  extent  to  which 
pauperism  and  crime  are  due  to  liquor,  in  our 
country,  our  investigation  would  be  incom- 
plete, did  we  not  give  some  attention  to  the 
means  by  which  a  large  part  of  the  hquor  is 
conveyed  to  drinkers.  The  evils  of  excessive 
drinking  are  well  recognized,  and  yet  the  sa- 
loon seems  to  flourish  in  spite  of  these  evils. 
We  must,  therefore,  analyze  the  saloon,  as 
we  have  analyzed  the  statistics  of  pauperism 
and  crime,  and  endeavor  to  learn  its  true  na- 
ture. The  reports  which  have  been  made  for 
us  in  several  large  cities,  especially  Chicago, 
New  York,  Boston,  and  San  Francisco,  con- 
cur in  showing  that  the  saloon,  though  sup- 
plying the  means  of  intemperance,  is  not 
exclusively  devoted  to  this  purpose.  Its  char- 
acter differs  naturally  with  the  locality  in 
which  it  is  situated,  and  with  the  nationality 


126  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

and  occupation  of  its  patrons,  but  it  generally 
attracts  custom  by  ministering  to  the  social 
wants  of  the  poor  man.^  Here  he  finds  com- 
panionship, recreation,  literature,  even  kind- 
ness, and  help  in  trouble.  What  more  natu- 
ral than  that  he  should  become  its  patron, 
even  though  the  desire  for  drink  may  not  be 
very  strong  ?  This  is  seen  in  the  fact  that 
saloons  flourish  among:  nationalities  like  the 
Jews  in  New  York,  which  are  noted  for  their 
moderation. 

The  fact  that  the  saloon  is  more  than  a 
mere  drinking  place,  and  that  it  supplies 
many  legitimate  wants  besides  the  craving 
for  intoxication,  should  be  frankly  recog- 
nized, and  ought  to  be  of  help  to  those  who 
are  engaged  in  practical  efforts  to  counteract 
the  evils  of  intemperance.  This  part  of  our 
investigation  has  been  carried  on  mainly 
through  the  agency  of  social  and  university 
settlements,  and  these  institutions  are  already 
taking  advantage  of  the  knowledge  gained 
in  their  daily  experience  with  the  poor  to 
offer  at  least  some  of  those  counteracting; 

o 

1  This  feature  of  the  saloon  was  graphically  described 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  by  Charles  Loring 
Brace,  in  Dangerous  Classes  of  New  York,  p.  G4. 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  127 

attractions  and  positive  forces  without  which 
the  driving  out  of  the  spirit  of  drink  will  be 
of  no  avail. 


V.     ECONOMIC    FORCES    WORKING    FOR    AND 
AGAINST  THE  CONSUMPTION  OF  LIQUOR 

The  large  interests  represented  by  the 
capital  invested  in  the  production  and  sale  of 
liquors  and  the  large  number  of  persons  who 
gain  their  livelihood  in  connection  with  it  do 
not  necessarily  represent  a  force  working  for 
intemperance.  They  certainly  indicate,  how- 
ever, some  measure  of  the  resistance  which 
must  be  encountered  in  any  effort  to  abolish 
or  restrict  the  use  of  liquor,  and  they  explain 
the  success  with  which  radical  reformatory 
measures  are  often  thwarted.  Yet  these  fig- 
ures, formidable  as  they  are,  are  not  alto- 
gether discouraging.  The  largest  interests 
are  represented  by  the  least  alcoholic  bever- 
ages. In  1890  the  manufacture  of  malt 
liquors  gave  employment  to  34,800  persons 
and  yielded  a  product  of  $182,731,622 ;  the 
manufacture  of  distilled  liquors  employed  but 
5343  persons  and  yielded  a  product  of  but 
$104,197,809.^    In  1900  the  value  of  malt 

1  Twelfth  Annual  Report  of  the  Department  of  Labor,  p.  27. 


/ 


128  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

liquors  had  increased  to  $237,269,713,  and 
the  persons  engaged  in  their  production  to 
4:6,685,  while  the  value  of  distilled  liquors 
had  fallen  to  $96,798,443,  and  the  producers 
to  4383.^  And  if  we  look  at  the  consumption 
of  liquors  for  a  series  of  years,  we  find  a 
marked  dechne  in  the  more  alcoholic  varie- 
ties. It  is,  unfortunately,  no  longer  true,  as 
it  was  in  1896,  that  the  per  capita  consump- 
tion of  distilled  liquors  in  the  United  States 
is  declining,  the  amount  having  risen  from 
1.01  gallons  in  1896  to  1.46  in  1903.  But 
in  1840  the  average  was  2.52  gallons  per 
capita.  On  the  other  hand,  the  consumption 
of  malt  liquors  has  risen  from  1.36  gallons 
per  capita  in  1840  to  18.04  in  1903.^  Thus 
we  find  a  gradual  substitution  of  lighter  for 
stronger  drinks. 

This  does  not  seem  to  be  fortuitous.  There 
are  very  powerful  economic  forces  which 
almost  compel  moderation  in  modern  indus- 
try. It  does  not  seem  too  optimistic  to  say 
that  a  complete  change  has  taken  place  in 
the  habits  of  the  wage-earning  class  since  the 

^  Twelfth  Census,  vol.  vii,  p.  10. 

^  Twelfth  Annual  Report   of  the  Department   of  Labor, 
p.  35,  and  Statistical  Abstract  of  the  United  States  for  1903. 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  129 

days,  in  the  early  part  of  this  century,  when 
men  went  on  strike  for  the  sake  of  getting 
their  rations  of  rum.  It  was  considered  a 
remarkable  achievement  in  1817  for  a  ship 
to  be  completed,  in  spite  of  such  resistance, 
without  the  use  of  liquor  in  any  form,^  and 
James  Brewster  had  to  overcome  a  long-es- 
tablished custom  when  he  put  a  stop  to 
drinking  in  his  carriage  factory  in  New 
Haven,  early  in  the  century. 

This  change  has  been  furthered  by  two 
agencies:  the  self-interest  of  the  employed 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  self-interest  of  the 
employers  on  the  other.  Not  only  were 
rations  of  grog  common  among  mechanics 
in  the  early  days  of  the  century,  but  the 
early  labor  organizations  were  almost  always 
more  or  less  associated  with  drink.  It  was 
common  in  Enjjland  for  the  unions  to  meet 
in  public  houses,  and  a  certain  allowance, 
known  as  "  liquor  allowance,"  was  made  for 
drinks.  Even  as  late  as  1837,  according  to 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webb,^  the  rules  of  the  Steam 
Engine  Makers'  Society  directed  that  one 
third  of  the  weekly  contribution  should  be 

^  Wright,  Industrial  Evolution,  p.  276. 
2  The  History  of  Trade  Unionism,  p.  185. 


130  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

spent  in  the  refreshment  of  the  members. 
The  executive  committees  of  the  larger 
societies,  however,  began  to  ojDpose  this  cus- 
tom, and  in  the  revision  of  1846  the  provi- 
sion just  quoted  was  left  out  of  the  rules  of 
the  society. 

As  the  unions  have  become  larger  and 
wealthier,  they  have  been  able  to  emancipate 
themselves  from  the  public  houses  by  having 
their  own  places  of  meeting,  while  the  impor- 
tance of  keeping  sober  during  strikes  has 
impressed  itself  more  and  more  upon  them. 
The  very  magnitude  of  their  financial  opera- 
tions necessitates  the  election  of  temperate 
men  to  the  higher  offices,  and  the  develop- 
ment of  an  elaborate  system  of  insurance 
benefits  gives  each  member  a  direct  interest 
in  the  sobriety  of  his  fellows.  No  member  of 
a  union  wants  to  feel  that  his  contributions, 
laboriously  saved  from  small  earnings,  are  to 
be  used  up  for  the  support  of  a  drunken 
fellow  member. 

What  is  true  of  English  unions  is  true  to 
a  large  extent  of  our  own,  and  as  far  as  their 
public  utterances  are  concerned,  our  unions 
stand  strictly  for  moderation,  in  spite  of  occa- 
sional lapses  on  the  part  of  walking  delegates 


ECONOMIC   ASPECTS  131 

and  others.  Injunctions  in  favor  of  modera- 
tion are  found  in  many  passages  of  their 
rules.  Thus,  in  some  cases,  the  rules  provide 
that,  if  a  man  is  discharged  on  account  of 
drunkenness,  no  steps  shall  be  taken  to  rein- 
state him,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Iron,  Steel, 
and  Tin  Workers,  In  many  cases  the  liquor 
traf&c,  as  such,  is  tabooed  ;  and  a  man  who 
goes  into  it  is  excluded  from  the  union.  This 
is  done  by  the  Metal  Polishers,  the  Core 
Makers,  the  Iron  Moulders,  the  Retail  Clerks, 
and  the  Knights  of  Labor.  In  still  other 
cases  the  person  is  excluded  from  the  benefits 
to  which  he  would  be  entitled  in  case  of  sick- 
ness, accident,  or  unemployment.  This  is 
true  of  the  Iron  Moulders,  the  Blacksmiths, 
the  Amalgamated  Society  of  Carpenters  and 
Joiners,  the  Wood  Workers,  the  Painters  and 
Decorators,  the  Leather  Workers  on  Horse 
Goods,  the  Tobacco  Workers,  the  Cigar 
Makers,  and  the  Retail  Clerks.  Many  unions 
fine  or  otherwise  punish  those  who  attend 
meetings  in  an  intoxicated  condition,  and  the 
Trades  and  Labor  Council  of  Fort  Wayne, 
Ind.,  goes  so  far  as  to  provide  that  "  the 
Council  shall  never,  on  any  occasion,  where 
it   is   giving   a    demonstration,   celebration. 


132  THE  LIQUOR  PKOBLEM 

excursion,  picnic,  ball,  or  entertainment  of 
any  description,  sell  intoxicating  liquors  itself, 
or  grant  the  privilege  to  sell  intoxicating 
liquors  to  any  person  or  persons,  firm,  society, 
or  company." 

The  employers,  on  the  other  hand,  equally 
feel  the  importance  of  sobriety  as  a  means  of 
preventing  accidents,  of  insuring  good  work, 
and  of  securing  responsibility.  The  report 
made  by  the  Department  of  Labor  on  this 
subject  reveals  an  agency  which  has  hitherto 
been  little  noticed.  The  schedule  of  inquiries 
issued  by  the  Department  brought  returns 
from  over  7000  establishments,  employing 
1,700,000  persons.  These  establishments  are 
no  small  fraction  of  the  industry  of  the 
country.  In  transportation  lines,  713  replied, 
representing  458,000  employees.  Of  the  6976 
who  answered  the  specific  inquiry  regarding 
liquor,  5363  reported  that  means  were  taken 
to  ascertain  the  habits  of  employees,  and 
1794  prohibited,  more  or  less  strictly,  drink- 
ing. In  most  of  these  cases,  the  philan- 
thropic motive  seems  to  have  counted  for 
little.  Of  the  1794  who  restrict  their  em- 
ployees in  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors,  28 
give  as  their  reason,  "  to  make  good  example 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  133 

for  other  employees ; "  two,  "  to  guard 
against  temptation  ;  "  and  two,  "  for  the  good 
of  employees."  Generally,  the  object  is  either 
to  prevent  accidents,  or  to  secure  better  work, 
better  economy,  or  greater  responsibility  in 
positions  of  trust. 

As  more  things  are  done  by  machinery, 
as  trolley-cars  supplant  horse-cars,  as  imple- 
ments of  greater  precision  and  refinement 
take  the  place  of  cruder  ones,  as  the  speed  at 
which  machinery  is  run  is  increased,  as  the 
intensity  with  which  people  work  becomes 
greater,  the  necessity  of  having  a  clear  head 
during  the  hours  of  labor  becomes  impera- 
tive, and  the  very  conditions  of  modern  busi- 
ness life  necessitate  sobriety  on  the  part  of 
the  workers.  Those  who  would  find  profit- 
able employment  realize  more  and  more  the 
importance  of  moderation  in  drink. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  the  Sub- 
committee on  the  Economic  Aspects  of  the 
Liquor  Problem,  having  been  appointed  to 
study  those  aspects  only,  has  not  referred  to 
the  moral  side  of  the  case.  But  it  cannot  be 
without  interest  to  those  who  are  especially 
active  in  the  use  of  moral  agencies  of  reform 
to  learn  that  these  agencies  may  often  be 


134  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

powerfully  reinforced  by  economic  considera- 
tions. Our  investigation  shows,  as  we  believe, 
that  economic  forces  are  already  working  in 
the  direction  of  moderation  which  need  but 
be  stimulated  and  directed  to  become  effec- 
tive allies  of  the  moral  agencies  which  are 
attacking  the  evils  of  the  liquor  habit. 


A  SUMMARY  OF  INVESTIGATIONS 
CONCERNING  THE  ETHICAL  ASPECTS 
OF  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

By  JACOB  L.  GREENE 

CHAIBMAN  OF  THE  SUB-COMMITTEE 


A  SUMMARY  OF  INVESTIGATIONS  CON- 
CERNING THE  ETHICAL  ASPECTS  OF 
THE   LIQUOR   PROBLEM^ 

As  the  reports  of  the  several  committees 
have  been  presented,  two  things  have  be- 
come increasingly  evident :  1st,  Each  report, 
whether  dealing  with  the  physiological,  eco- 
nomic, sociological,  or  legislative  aspects, 
heads  up  in  a  problem  whose  ethical  signifi- 
cance is  too  obvious  for  discussion :  a  ques- 
tion of  right  use  and  abuse ;  of  means  of 
remedy  and  control ;  of  individual  and  col- 
lective responsibility.  Each  problem  so  pre- 
sents itself  as  to  demand  immediate  issue  in 
personal  conduct  and  in  collective  attitude 
and  action,  and  bears  on  its  face  the  main 
lines  at  least  of  its  own  determination. 

The  ethical  aspects  presented  by  these 
reports  seem  to  group  themselves  somewhat 
as  follows :  — 

The  Physiological  Committee  has  clearly 

*  The  death  of  Mr.  Greene,  March,  1905,  has  prevented 
the  amplification  of  his  special  report. 


138  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

defined  the  value  of  alcohol  as  a  food  and  its 
usefulness  as  a  food  adjunct,  and  has  dis- 
criminated these  from  its  use  as  a  mere  stim- 
ulant and  as  a  remedy  in  the  hands  of  the 
medical  profession :  its  range  of  necessary 
use  in  either  aspect  is  shown  to  be  very 
limited :  the  dangers  from  use  so  limited, 
whether  in  personal  effect  or  in  the  forma- 
tion of  morbid  appetite,  are  practically  nil. 

Danger  arises  outside  such  use  —  how  far 
outside  seems  to  be  a  matter  of  individual 
temperament,  condition,  and  circumstance : 
the  proper  limits,  if  any,  of  mere  pleasurable 
use,  are  therefore  impossible  of  definition  : 
but  it  is  here  that  the  border-land  of  danger 
is  entered :  the  influences  which  here  tend 
to  operate  disastrously  are  rooted  in  the 
social  nature  and  relations  of  man.  As  re- 
gards the  great  body  of  drinkers  in  saloons, 
these  are  clearly  set  forth  in  Mr.  Calkins* 
very  valuable  report  to  Dr.  Peabody's  sub- 
committee ;  and  the  same  influences,  under 
varying  conditions,  operate  to  the  same  end 
in  all  groups  of  society.  It  seems  hardly  an 
exaggeration  to  say  that  the  whole  strength 
of  the  liquor  traffic  lies  in  the  weakness  of 
human  nature  on  its  social  side,  and  it  is  on 


ETHICAL  ASPECTS  139 

the  structural  social  unit  —  the  family  —  that 
retribution  falls  most  crushingly. 

The  economic  aspects,  in  large  and  in 
miserable  detail,  are  a  part  of  the  extension 
of  its  blighting  malignity  to  all  whom  the 
drink-habit  touches.  The  study  of  the  legis- 
lative aspects  shows  how  inadequate,  if  not 
worse,  is  mere  statutory  prohibition :  how  it 
fails  to  touch  any  spring  of  evil ;  and  how 
at  best  it  can  but  support  some  remedial 
treatment  based  upon  something  other  than 
legislation  ;  something  that  finds  deeper  and 
sound  hold  in  human  nature  on  its  social 
side. 

Obviously,  the  questions  of  remedy  resolve 
themselves  to  two:  those  which  are  pallia- 
tive of  the  visible  evils  that  afflict  or  threaten 
society  and  tend  to  minimize  and  remove 
them  as  far  as  possible  by  some  method  and 
degree  of  repression,  and  those  which  go 
deeper  and  seek  to  remove  the  source  of  the 
evil  by  the  redemption  of  human  nature, 
procuring  its  action  on  a  right  ethical  plane. 
And  this  last  can  be  accompHshed  only  in 
the  souls  of  individual  men.  Man  by  man 
they  must  be  won  to  righteousness.  There 
is  no  salvation  for  the  mass  as  a  mass.    Atom 


140  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

by  atom  must  the  leaven  do  its  slow,  tedious, 
patient  work  until  the  whole  is  leavened 
because  each  particle  is  leavened.  There  is 
no  short  cut. 

Secondly,  the  wider  study  of  the  drink- 
problem  brought  out  very  clearly  the  oft 
forgotten  fact  that,  especially  in  our  mixed 
American  communities,  it  is  in  the  large  and 
in  a  very  definite  sense  a  local  problem,  in 
that  its  aspects  of  evil  and  its  remedial  treat- 
ment vary  with  the  character  of  the  popula- 
tion, and  what  may  be  suited  to  or  practi- 
cable under  one  set  of  conditions  involving; 
race,  temperament,  industrial,  economic,  and 
social  conditions,  may  require  much  modifi- 
cation applied  to  different  conditions.  It 
therefore  becomes  practically  impossible  to 
dogmatize  with  universal  acceptance,  or  to 
formulate  rules  of  procedure  everywhere 
equally  apphcable.  It  came  to  be  felt  that, 
as  methods  must  more  or  less  vary,  the  best 
aid  that  could  be  given  to  men  competent  to 
the  local  work  would  be  to  furnish  them 
the  facts  set  forth  in  the  several  sub-com- 
mittee reports,  simply  emphasizing  their  eth- 
ical significance,  and  leaving  them  to  apply 
the   clear  principles    according    to    circum- 


ETHICAL  ASPECTS  141 

stances,  unhindered  by  prescription.  And  no 
amount  of  prescription  can  make  effective 
the  work  of  incompetent  men,  or  men  incap- 
able of  applying  principles  for  themselves. 
As  in  all  human  effort  on  the  dual  lines  of 
overcoming  the  evil  that  men  are  doing  and 
removing  the  evil  itself  from  the  hearts  of 
men,  there  needs  be  on  the  part  of  all  laborers 
in  this  field  of  reform  a  clear  recognition  of 
the  fact  that  the  work  is  never  done :  it  is 
always  being  done ;  it  is  always  unfinished. 
Each  new  generation,  each  wave  of  tempta- 
tion that  passes  over  the  lives  of  men,  renews 
the  problem  and  demands  new  labors. 

To  one  observant  of  the  manifold  degra- 
dations and  distresses  caused  by  drink,  and 
moved  by  divinely  human  pity  and  indigna- 
tion alike  to  remedy  the  same,  one  of  the 
greatest  trials  and  difficulties  is  the  neces- 
sary combination  of  patience  with  labor,  the 
due  mingling  of  discretion  and  zeal.  The 
apostolic  wrath  that  would  have  called  down 
the  consuming  fire  from  heaven  seems  none 
too  hot.  But  there  can  be  no  doubt  that, 
however  definite  the  aim  or  however  severe 
the  ultimate  standard  of  the  temperance  re- 
former, so  far  at  least  as  the  effective  action 


142  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

of  the  community  within  its  proper  lines  of 
duty  and  right  is  concerned,  he  must  be  a 
more  or  less  patient  opportunist.  He  must 
move  by  such  steps  as  are  for  the  moment 
practicable,  and  from  the  secure  basis  of  a 
recognized  good  so  attained  move  forward 
to  the  next  attainable  better:  the  proper 
steps  and  their  proper  order  being  questions 
dependent  on  many  locally  varying  consider- 
ations. 


VI 

A  SUMMARY  OF  INVESTIGATIONS 
CONCERNING  SUBSTITUTES  FOR 
THE  SALOON 

By  RAYMOND  CALKINS 

EDITOR  OF  THE  VOLUME,   "SUBSTITUTES  FOB  THE  SALOON" 


A  SUMISIARY  OF  INVESTIGATIONS  CON- 
CERNING SUBSTITUTES  FOR  THE  SA- 
LOON 

The  volume  of  which  this  report  is  a  summary 
deals  with  a  single  aspect  of  the  liquor  pro- 
blem. The  study  begins  with  the  saloon  as 
it  exists  in  our  American  cities  and  takes 
account  of  only  one  of  its  characteristics  ;  its 
contribution  to  sociability,  its  importance  as 
a  factor  in  the  social  and  recreative  life  of  its 
patrons,  and  in  a  larger  sense  of  the  com- 
munity as  a  whole. 

Beginning  at  this  point,  the  possibility  is 
discussed  of  offsetting  and  finally  overcoming 
the  social  features  of  the  liquor  traffic ;  the 
different  legislative  systems  are  examined  in 
their  bearings  upon  this  aspect  of  the  liquor 
problem,  and  that  system  is  commended 
which  it  is  believed  will  reduce  to  a  minimum 
the  social  possibilities  of  the  saloon.  The 
remaining  and  by  far  the  largest  portion  of 
the  volume  is  devoted  to  a  review  of  the 
different  methods  by  which  the  social  life  of 


146  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

the  people  may  be  satisfied  apart  from  the 
saloon.  This  study  is  intended  to  be  an  in- 
clusive survey  of  those  features  of  the  social 
life  of  our  American  cities  -which  rival  the 
attractions  of  the  saloon.  In  each  case  the 
effort  is  made  to  suggest  specific  and  practical 
ways  in  which  social  substitutes  for  the  saloon 
may  be  established,  in  which  social  oppor- 
tunity for  the  people  may  be  provided,  which 
shall  be  wholesome,  educative,  and  contribu- 
tive  to  a  higher  form  of  individual  and 
community  life. 

In  the  summary  which  follows,  no  attempt 
is  made  either  to  suggest  the  sources,  or  to 
prove  the  reliability,  of  the  material  which 
forms  the  basis  of  the  discussion,  and  the 
story  is  not  told  in  the  order  in  which  it 
appears  in  the  text.  The  subject  is  simply 
sketched  in  outline,  and  the  definite  conclu- 
sions reached  are  in  each  case  presented. 
For  the  fuller  discussion  the  writer  is  referred 
to  the  volume  itself. 

A  careful  study  of  the  saloon  as  it  exists 

to-day  in  our  American  cities  has  revealed 

(  the    fact   that   it   is   performing   a   double 

office,  it  is  satisfying  a  twofold  thirst ;   it 


SUBSTITUTES  FOR  THE  SALOON        147 

is  meeting  the  physical  craving  for  intox- 
icating  liquor,  but  it  is  also  meeting  the 

1  thirst  for  fellowship,  for  amusement,  and  for 

\  recreation.  Not  only  is  the  saloon  performing 
such  a  service,  but  it  has,  or  has  had,  the  field 
practically  to  itself ;  in  a  vt^ord,  it  has  had 
handed  over  to  it  by  the  community  the 
monoply  of  the  social  hfe  of  the  majority  of 
American  wage-earners. 

There  are  various  ways  of  verifying  such 
an  assertion.  One  is  to  look  at  the  patronage 
of  our  saloons  to-day.  Investigation  in  Boston 

,  in  1895  revealed  the  fact  that  no  less  than 
two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  of  Boston's 
inhabitants,  or  about  fifty  per  cent.,  daily 
visited  the  saloons  of  that  city.  This  was 
supposed  to  be  an  exaggerated  estimate ;  but 

I  in  1898  a  very  careful  census  taken  of  the 
city  of  Chicago  revealed  the  fact  that  nine 
hundred  thousand,  or  over  fifty  per  cent,  of 
the  population,  daily  frequented  the  saloons 
of  that  city.  When  one  looks  at  these  figures 
closely,  bent  upon  discovering  the  cause  of 
such  a  hold  of  the  saloon  on  the  community, 
he  discovers  that  the  saloon  is  ministering  to 
a  much  deeper  desire  than  that  for  alcoholic 
liquors ;  nothing  less  than  the  satisfaction  of 


148  THE  LIQUOE  PROBLEM 

the  deeper  thirst  for  fellowship  and  recreation 
can  adequately  explain  so  large  a  patronage 
as  this. 

A  concrete  and  thorough  examination  of 
the  saloon  itself  has  verified  such  a  conclu- 
sion. An  inquiry  which  has  been  carried  on 
in  cities  of  all  sections  of  the  country,  which 
has  included  every  type  of  saloon  in  each 
city,  has  revealed  the  immense  importance  of 
the  saloon  as  a  social  centre.  Whatever  its 
particular  character  may  be,  the  saloon  as 
such  offers  to  its  patrons  a  social  rendezvous ; 
it  provides  them  at  a  minimum  of  cost  with 
a  sure  stimulus  to  sociability,  and  its  atmos- 
phere is  one  of  social  freedom.  Besides  these 
general  advantages,  the  saloon  affords  cer- 
tain specific  and  valuable  opportunities  apart 
from  the  provision  of  liquor.  Some  of  these 
features  are  intended  directly  for  amusement 
and  recreation.  Tables  and  cards  are  fre- 
quently supplied  by  the  proprietor,  and  some- 
times card  rooms.  Reading  is  not  so  com- 
mon, but  the  daily  papers  are  by  no  means 
rare.  The  saloons  are  the  headquarters  for 
athletic  information  ;  they  are  the  centres  of 
political  activity;  they  are  the  only  labor 
bureaus  that  many  workingmen  know  any- 


SUBSTITUTES  FOR  THE  SALOON        149 

thing  about ;  they  take  the  place  of  the  so- 
cial club.  Many  of  them  provide  adjacent 
rooms  where  labor  unions  and  lodges  may 
meet.  Nearly  all  provide  a  so-called  "free 
lunch "  where,  either  without  extra  cost  or 
for  a  small  amount,  sufficient  food  is  fur- 
nished to  satisfy  an  ordinary  appetite.  In 
these  and  in  many  other  ways,  the  saloon 
has  intrenched  itself  in  the  social  life  of  the 
people.  It  is  nicely  planned  to  meet  needs 
which  are  not  met  in  any  other  way,  and  the 
social  importance  of  the  saloon  is  practically 
the  same  whatever  may  be  the  legislative 
system  under  which  it  exists.  Such,  in  a  word, 
is  the  social  side  of  saloon  life  as  it  presents 
itself  to-day  in  all  of  our  American  cities.^ 

It  goes  without  saying  that  the  liquor 
dealers  are  not  the  proper  persons  to  have 
charge  of  the  social  life  of  our  American 
working  people,  and  that  the  liquor  saloon  is 
not  the  proper  place  for  the  social  instinct  to 
find  its  satisfaction.  The  liquor  dealer  is  not 
disinterested  in  the  provision  which  he  makes 

*  See  Substitutes  for  the  Saloon,  pp.  1-24.  See  also 
"  Why  Working  Men  Drink,"  the  Outlook  of  September 
14, 1901. 


150  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

for  the  comfort  and  pleasure  of  his  patrons ; 
he  expects  to  make  good  for  any  such  ex- 
penditures by  his  additional  receipts,  and  his 
expectations  are  rarely  disappointed.  Intem- 
perate drinking  results,  and  the  squandering 
of  the  week's  wage.  Gambling  and  the  social 
evil  are  closely  allied  with  the  perils  of  drunk- 
enness. The  seriousness  of  the  situation  is 
evident  when  it  is  understood  that  the  saloon 
stands  at  the  same  time  for  the  source  of  the 
city's  crime  and  the  centre  of  much  of  its 
social  life.  The  first  part  of  this  statement 
few  will  question.  That  the  latter  part  is  also 
true  will  become  apparent  to  any  one  who 
will  carefully  examine  the  saloon  as  it  exists 
and  then  will  search  for  other  existing  agen- 
cies which  are  performing  anything  like  the 
same  social  service.  They  are  not  to  be  found. 
As  yet  adequate  substitutes  for  the  social 
benefits  which  thousands  of  people  actually 
derive  daily  from  the  saloons  have  not  been 
developed.  It  is  to  this  problem  that  the 
experience,  the  wisdom,  and  the  wealth  of 
those  interested  in  social  progress  must  now 
be  directed. 


SUBSTITUTES  FOR  THE  SALOON        lol 

The  negative  approach  to  the  problem  is 
by  the  legislative  repression  of  the  social  side 
of  the  saloon  life.  Can  a  system  of  liquor 
legislation  be  devised  which  shall  extirpate 
the  social  function  of  the  saloons?  This 
question  may  safely  be  answered  in  the  af- 
firmative. Experimentation  in  liquor  legisla- 
tion has  developed  a  system  under  which 
liquor  selling  may  be  made  as  prosaic  as  any 
retail  grocery  business,  and  a  saloon  as  de- 
void of  social  attractions  as  a  dry  goods  store. 
It  would  be  possible  to  place  upon  the  statute 
books  of  all  our  cities  without  delay  a  liquor 
law  which  would  effectually  annihilate  the 
social  features  of  the  saloon. 

The  cardinal  principle  in  such  legislation  is 
the  removal  of  the  element  of  iwofit  from, 
the  sale  of  liquor.  Here  we  may  say  the  root 
of  the  whole  matter  rests.  Once  permit  men 
to  sell  liquor  for  the  money  they  can  make 
out  of  it,  and  the  attractiveness  and  social 
features  of  the  saloon  life  are  boimd  to  fol- 
low. With  an  eye  to  larger  profits  the  dealer 
will  seek  by  every  imaginable  method  to  stim- 
ulate his  sales.  It  will  not  be  possible  for  the 
State  by  subsequent  legislation  apprecialily 
to  diminish  the  social  attractiveness  of  the 


152  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

saloons  ■when  once  the  fatal  error  has  been 
made  of  delivering  over  to  men  the  liquor  mo- 
nopoly for  money-making  purposes.  Under 
a  low  license  system  the  saloons  multiply, 
and  enter  into  Hvely  competition  with  each 
other,  and  thus  increase  in  attractiveness.  If 
the  State  imposes  a  high  license,  then  the 
saloon  keeper  not  only  has  to  pay  the  ex- 
penses of  rental  and  wares  and  services,  but 
in  addition  he  has  to  pay  to  the  State  from 
one  thousand  to  two  thousand  dollars,  and 
he  must  make  his  profit  beside.  The  State 
cannot  expect  its  treasury  to  be  reimbursed, 
and  at  the  same  time  demand  that  the  Hquor 
dealers  abstain  from  their  methods  of  in- 
creasing their  income.  There  is  no  way  of 
diminishing  the  social  activity  of  the  saloon 
so  long  as  liquor  selling  and  money  getting 
are  put  together  in  the  same  system. 

The  retention  of  the  element  of  profit  is  the 

objection  to  existing  systems  of  governmental 

j    control  of  the  liquor  traffic.    The  South  Caro- 

\    lina  dispensary  law,  for  example,  substitutes 

V  public  profit  for  private  profit.    That  by  this 

means  progress  has  been  made  toward  the 

solution   of   the  problem  there   can   be  no 

doubt.    The  South  Carolina  dispensaries  are 


SUBSTITUTES  FOR  THE  SALOON        153 

by  no  means  centres  of  social  life ;  they  have 
been  shorn  of  all  attractiveness,  having  lost 
utterly  the  atmosphere  of  conviviahty.  Drink- 
ing is  not  permitted  upon  the  premises,  the 
purchasers  are  not  encouraged  to  loiter,  and 
the  store-keeper  has  no  personal  interest  in 
the  amount  of  his  sales.  But  vast  perils  still 
remain.  The  saloon  is  still  in  politics ;  for 
the  control  of  the  saloon  opposing  parties 
still  contend  at  the  polls.  The  amount  of 
liquor  sold  and  the  consequent  accruing  rev- 
enue are  still  a  matter  of  vital  concern  to  the 
State  at  large,  for,  according  to  this  system, 
the  profits  of  the  Hquor  traffic  are  applied 
to  the  tax  rate.  If  th«  amount  of  liquor  sold 
be  reduced,  the  tax  rate  will  be  raised.  In 
the  South  Carolina  system  to-day  the  salaries 
of  certain  government  officials  are  regulated 
by  the  amount  of  liquor  sold.  This  system, 
therefore,  though  it  may  be  a  step  in  ad- 
vance, is  defective,  for  the  element  of  profit 
still  remains. 

The  nearest  approach  to  the  complete  elim- 
ination of  the  element  of  profit  has  been 
made  by  the  Norwegian  or  Company  system, 
which  may  be  said  to  contain  the  essence 
of  scientific  modern  liquor  legislation.    The 


/ 


154  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

workings  of  the  system  are  by  no  means  per- 
fect, the  results  by  no  means  all  that  could 
be  desired ;  but  the  cardinal  principle  of  the 
removal  of  profit  either  for  the  State  or  for 
the  individual  has  been  incorporated  in  what 
is  to-day  without  doubt  the  best  existing  sys- 
tem of  liquor  legislation.  The  saloons  are  no 
longer  attractive  places  of  resort.  The  bar- 
keeper has  no  personal  interest  in  his  sales ; 
on  the  contrary,  his  salary  is  dependent  on  his 
observance  of  the  conditions  under  which 
liquor  shall  be  sold.  The  State  is  not  inter- 
ested in  the  amount  of  the  returns,  for  these 
are  not  applied  to  the  tax  rate,  but  are  applied, 
after  the  payment  of  costs,  to  the  establish- 
ment of  social  resorts,  educational  enterprises, 
and  for  purposes  of  public  improvement. 

Such  a  system  is  available  in  our  own 
country  at  any  time  that  enlightened  public 
sentiment  demands  it.  Whatever  special  form 
it  shall  assume,  it  will  contain  the  following 
essential  features :  — 

First.  The  local  option  principle  will  re- 
main in  full  force ;  it  will  not  be  obligatory 
upon  any  town  or  community  to  have  a  dis- 
pensary, the  dispensary  will  exist  by  vote  of 
the  separate  communities  themselves. 


SUBSTITUTES  FOR  THE  SALOON        155 

Second.  There  will  be  absolutely  no  pri- 
vate profit.  No  inducement  will  be  offered 
to  any  liquor  dealer  or  bar-keeper  to  retail 
more  liquor  rather  than  less. 

Third.  All  profits  will  go  to  the  State,  but 
no  profits  will  be  applied  to  the  tax  rate. 

Fourth.  All  profits,  after  payment  of  ex- 
penses, will  be  redistributed  to  communities 
for  the  purpose  of  public  betterment. 

Fifth.  All  profits  will  be  distributed  irre- 
spective of  whether  the  community  has  voted 
for  or  against  the  dispensary,  thus  putting  no 
premium  upon  the  existence  of  the  dispen- 
sary.^ 

The  possibility  of  legislation  to  extirpate 
the  social  attractiveness  of  the  saloons  by 
removing  the  element  of  profit  has  thus  been 
demonstrated.  This,  however,  is  the  lighter 
portion  of  our  task ;  a  more  difficult  matter 
is  to  develop  the  right  kind  of  social  centres  ; 
to  supply  the  peculiar  satisfactions  which 
many  find  to-day  within  the  walls  of  the 
saloon.  It  is  to  this  aspect  of  the  problem 
that  we  must  turn.    What  are  the  possibil- 

1  Compare,  Substitutes  for  the  Saloon,  pp.  25-44.  Also 
Rowntree  and  Sherwell,  The  Temperance  Problem  and 
Social  Reform,  9tb  edition,  pp.  509-C04. 


156  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

ities  for  recreation  as  they  exist  to-day  in  our 
American  cities  ?  How  may  existing  condi- 
tions be  improved  so  as  to  meet  the  social 
needs  of  the  people  and  to  nullify  the  social 
attractiveness  of  the  saloon,  while  it  exists, 
and  to  take  its  place  when  by  proper  legisla- 
tion it  has  been  removed  ? 

Social  life  suggests  the  club,  and  club  life 
in  America  has  its  unique  and  interesting 
aspects.  It  is  necessary  to  begin  the  study 
of  men's  clubs  with  the  boys,  because  boys' 
clubs  are  a  distinct  feature  in  the  social  life 
of  American  cities,  and  because  only  a  few 
years  are  needed  under  wrong  conditions  to 
convert  any  boy  into  a  steady  patron  of  the 
saloon.  In  all  our  cities  clubs  or  gangs  of 
boys  exist  in  great  numbers  whose  only  ob- 
ject is  amusement.  A  good  description  of 
the  life  of  these  groups  may  be  found  in  Mr. 
Riis's  "The  Battle  With  the  Slum  "  and  Mr. 
Wood's  "The  City  Wilderness."  Without 
meeting  place  other  than  the  street  or  an 
abandoned  shed,  without  proper  guidance  or 
control,  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  drift  of  these 
juvenile  clubs  is  steadily  toward  the  saloon, 
or  that  the  ever-watchful  saloon  keeper  should 


SUBSTITUTES  FOR  THE  SALOON        157 

seek  to  supply  them  with  certain  comforts 
which  they  lack  elsewhere.  It  is  at  this  point 
that  the  labor  of  a  corrective  influence  should 
begin.  The  effort  should  be  made  to  redeem 
the  life  of  these  groups  by  providing  them 
with  a  proper  meeting  place,  with  wholesome 
interests,  and  with  genuine  ideals.  The  full 
story  of  what  has  already  been  accomplished 
at  this  point  cannot  be  told  here.  Only  cer- 
tain conclusions  can  be  enumerated.  For  one 
thing,  it  has  been  determined  that  this  work 
can  best  be  done  not  by  the  municipality, 
but  by  individual  or  private  philanthropic 
enterprise.  The  formation  and  guidance  of 
these  clubs  by  the  municipality  carries  with 
it  too  much  danger  of  poUtical  control.  At 
one  point,  however,  the  cooperation  of  the 
municipality  is  not  only  desirable,  but  indis- 
pensable. The  city  buildings  and  grounds 
must  be  thrown  open  for  the  use  of  these 
clubs.  School  buildings,  school  yards,  public 
parks,  public  playgrounds,  are  necessary  if 
the  club  life  of  the  boys  in  our  American 
cities  is  to  be  developed  in  right  directions. 
Where  these  have  been  placed  at  the  disposal 
of  private  individuals  and  associations  work- 
ing among  boys,  the  most  encouraging  re- 


158  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

suits  have  been  achieved.  The  importance  of 
handicraft,  manual  training,  sloyd,  and  car- 
pentry as  factors  in  moral  development  has 
also  been  demonstrated.  To-day  these  are 
widely  employed  as  the  best  means  of  secur- 
ing the  attention  and  developing  the  latent 
moral  interest  in  boys  of  all  ages  and  con- 
ditions. A  third  point  is  the  necessity  not 
only  for  further  open  spaces  upon  which  the 
play  instinct  may  find  expression  without  the 
interruption  of  the  street  and  the  interference 
of  the  police,  but  also  for  instruction  in  the 
right  forms  of  exercises  and  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  highest  forms  of  group  life. 
Noteworthy  in  this  direction  have  been  the 
results  achieved  by  the  Outdoor  Recreation 
League  in  New  York  and  by  the  Massachu- 
setts Civic  League,  whose  reports  are  indis- 
pensable to  all  who  are  interested  in  this  form 
of  enterprise.  It  may  safely  be  said  that  the 
conditions  for  the  right  sort  of  work  among 
the  boys  of  our  cities  have  been  wrought  out, 
and  that  no  department  of  modern  social 
work  presents  to-day  so  many  encouraging 
aspects. 

Besides  the  boys'  clubs,  there  are  in  every 
city    large   numbers   of    self-formed   young 


SUBSTITUTES  FOR  THE  SALOON        159 

men's  clubs.  These  bear  various  names,  such 
as  athletic  clubs,  literary  clubs,  social  clubs, 
but  their  object  is  generally  the  same,  —  to 
provide  a  social  rendezvous  for  their  members 
and  some  form,  however  crude,  of  social  life. 
These  clubs  meet  in  rooms  for  which  a  mod- 
est rental  is  paid.  To  these  rooms  the  mem- 
bers come  each  evening  to  play  cards,  to 
smoke,  and  to  have  a  good  time.  The  num- 
ber of  such  clubs  is  very  large,  probably  at 
least  one  club  for  every  one  hundred  young 
men  in  the  poorer  sections  of  any  city.  As 
might  be  expected,  the  morale  of  these  clubs 
is  not  high,  and  their  existence  is  often  very 
precarious.  In  many  of  them  intoxication  is 
not  uncommon  ;  and  few,  if  any,  have  a  posi- 
tive influence  for  good  upon  the  members. 
Yet  aside  from  the  saloon,  —  and  the  distance 
between  the  two  is  never  large,  and  has  a 
constant  tendency  to  diminish,  —  these  clubs 
provide  the  only  means  of  recreation  which 
many  of  the  young  men  of  our  cities  know. 

The  opportunity  here  presented  is  very 
inviting  and  equally  difficult.  It  is  much 
harder  to  influence  the  young  men's  clubs 
than  the  boys'  clubs.  Those  who  have  ac- 
complished the  most   in  this  direction  are 


160  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

undoubtedly  the  workers  in  the  settlements. 
Connected  with  almost  any  settlement  may 
be  found  groups  of  young  men,  many  of 
whom  have  grown  up  within  the  settlement 
influence.  By  means  of  guilds  or  series  of 
clubs  their  connection  with  the  settlement  is 
maintained  and  the  life  of  the  clubs  is  largely 
transformed.  The  great  necessity  for  this 
important  work  is  a  suitable  meeting  place ; 
especially  a  hall  for  dancing  and  other  social 
entertainments.  The  absence  of  such  rooms 
has  more  than  once  caused  the  disintegration 
of  otherwise  flourishing  clubs.  The  fact  is 
that  there  are  for  rental  very  few  rooms  and 
halls  except  those  having  a  saloon  connection 
or  a  saloon  proprietor.  The  provision  of  such 
clubrooms  and  halls  might  well  be  made  by 
the  municipahty.  It  would  be  a  new,  but  by 
no  means  unwarranted,  use  to  make  of  pub- 
lic funds.  Municipal  clubhouses  would  nearly 
pay  for  themselves  directly  out  of  the  rental 
received,  and  would  more  than  pay  for  them- 
selves indirectly  from  the  increase  of  good 
order  and  the  decreased  influence  of  the  sa- 
loon. Such  clubhouses  are  also  a  legitimate 
form  of  what  has  come  to  be  known  as  "  busi- 
ness philanthropy."  In  New  York  the  Social 


SUBSTITUTES  FOR  THE  SALOON         161 

Hall  Association  inaugurated  by  the  Nurses' 
Settlement,  and  the  new  clubhouse  to  be 
connected  with  the  Alfred  Corning  Clark 
Neighborhood  House  on  Rivington  Street, 
and  to  be  known  as  the  Edward  Clark  Club, 
are  practical  illustrations  of  this  important 
form  of  philanthropy.  It  is  expected,  at  least 
in  the  former  case,  that  the  new  clubhouse 
will  be  self-supporting  and  will  pay  an  interest 
on  the  capital  invested. 

The  effort  to  reach  the  social  life  of  the 
young  men  of  our  cities  is  not,  nor  should 
it  be,  confined  to  the  right  development  of 
clubs  already  existing.  Many  clubs  have 
been  formed,  and  clubhouses  have  been 
erected,  for  the  benefit  of  young  men  by 
private  philanthropy,  and  the  running  ex- 
penses, which  have  far  exceeded  the  receipts 
for  membership,  have  been  met  by  an  endow- 
ment or  annual  grant.  There  is  no  better 
illustration  of  a  club  of  this  type  than  the 
well-known  Hollywood  Inn,  which  affords  a 
temporary  home  and  many  otherwise  unat- 
tainable comforts  to  upwards  of  five  hundred 
men  of  Yonkers,  New  York.  Similar  enter- 
prises are  the  Lighthouse,  of  Philadelphia, 
Salem  Fraternity,  and,  in  a  more  educational 


162  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

way,  the  Prospect  Union  of  Cambridge,  and 
the  clubs  connected  with  many  large  manu- 
facturing establishments  in  the  country  to- 
day. These  all  go  to  prove  that  great  good 
can  be  accomplished  where  men  and  women 
give  of  their  wealth  to  provide  social  oppor- 
tunity for  the  working  people;  it  must  al- 
ways, however,  be  borne  in  mind  that  such 
clubs  cannot  hope  to  become  self-supporting 
institutions. 

Of  great  importance  also  is  the  work  ac- 
complished in  our  cities  by  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association,  which  is  the  largest 
and  wealthiest  institution  in  the  country  de- 
voting itself  exclusively  to  work  among  young 
men.  Its  importance  in  the  present  discussion 
cannot  be  denied.  Its  constituency,  it  is  true, 
is  not  as  a  rule  of  the  class  to  which  the  saloon 
makes  its  strongest  appeal.  Its  programme 
includes  the  religious  aim  and  the  conducting 
of  religious  exercises  according  to  Protestant 
modes  of  worship,  and  its  constitution  does 
not  permit  all  to  have  equal  controlling  rights. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  aim  of  the  association 
is  to  reach  all  grades  of  young  men  in  our 
cities;  its  methods  are  more  and  more  calcu- 
lated to  meet  their  needs ;  its  educational, 


SUBSTITUTES  FOR  THE  SALOON         1C3 

social,  and  athletic  privileges  are  open  to  all 
■without  distinction,  and  its  attractive  work 
bears  directly  upon  the  saloon  problem.  Its 
managers  are  seeking  to  make  it  an  effective 
factor  in  solving  the  social  problem  of  the 
young  men  in  our  cities ;  and  within  its  own 
field,  which  appears  to  be  constantly  widen- 
ing, it  is  accomplishing  its  aim. 

If  we  pass  to  the  adult  social  life  of  the 
married  men  among  American  wage-earners 
we  are  met  at  once  with  a  singular  phenome- 
non. As  a  rule  these  have  no  social  clubs 
and  no  visible  opportunity  for  recreation  out- 
side of  the  home  and  family  life.  When  the 
young  man  marries  he  drops  out  of  his  club 
and  enters  no  other  organization  of  a  purely 
social  sort.  The  club  of  the  married  man  is 
either  the  union  or  the  lodge,  and  neither  of 
these  is  primarily  a  social  organization.  It  is 
impossible  to  analyze  the  life  of  the  union 
or  of  the  lodge  at  this  point.  Such  an  anal- 
ysis, however,  has  conclusively  shown  that, 
as  at  present  conducted,  neither  the  union 
nor  the  lodge,  as  a  rule,  is  an  important  fac- 
tor in  the  social  life  of  American  was:e-earn- 
ers.    The  meetings  of  both  are  infrequent, 


164  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

not  over  once  in  a  fortnight  on  an  average. 
The  union  is  chiefly  concerned  with  the 
serious  problems  of  wage  and  hours  of  labor, 
the  label,  the  strike,  and  the  boycott.  Of  the 
nearly  six  hundred  fraternal  organizations, 
by  far  the  larger  number  exist  chiefly  for 
insurance  and  financial  benefit,  and  not  for 
social  purposes.  The  oldest  and  largest  of 
the  lodges  do  the  most  in  promoting  the 
social  life  of  their  members,  an  example  which 
the  younger  orders  would  do  well  to  follow. 
No  greater  single  advance  could  be  made 
toward  the  solution  of  the  social  problem  in 
America  than  for  unions  and  lodges  ahke  to 
include  the  social  aim  in  the  programme  of 
their  activities.  Permanent  rooms,  open  every 
evening  with  some  provision  for  amusement, 
would  go  far  towards  offsetting  the  attrac- 
tiveness of  the  saloon.  Again,  however,  we 
are  confronted  with  the  need  of  suitable 
club-rooms.  Again  we  are  reminded  that 
little  progress  in  any  branch  of  recreative 
reform  can  be  made  until  club-rooms  at  a 
moderate  rental  are  available,  free  from  the 
associations  and  control  of  the  saloons. 

The  surprising  thing,  however,  is  to  dis- 
cover the  absence  of  permanent  social  clubs 


SUBSTITUTES  FOR  THE  SALOON         165 

among  married  American  wage-earners.  In 
England  the  case  is  different.  There  the 
Workingmen's  Chib  and  Institute  Union 
has  an  enrollment  of  hundreds  of  different 
clubs  and  thousands  of  married  workingmen. 
Begun  as  a  philanthropic  and  temperance 
organization,  it  became  independent  and  self- 
supporting  in  1884.  Since  then  in  the  control 
of  workingmen,  these  clubs  have  provided 
social  enjoyment  for  their  members,  have 
developed  certain  educational  features,  and, 
while  not  teetotal  clubs,  have  undoubtedly 
been  effective  competitors  of  the  public 
houses.  There  seems  to  be  no  real  reason 
why  such  clubs  should  not  be  successful  in 
our  American  cities.  A  company  of  men  or 
women  interested  in  social  progress,  with 
means  at  their  disposal,  might  engage  the 
services  of  a  skilled  secretary  who  would 
proceed  to  form  such  clubs  and  to  unite 
them  by  some  central  board  of  control.  A 
democratic  management,  the  absence  of  the 
taint  of  patronage,  the  prominence  of  the 
recreative  idea,  and  a  judicious  settlement 
of  the  question  of  the  furnishing  of  intoxi- 
cating liquors  would  be  the  essential  condi- 
tions of  the  success  of  such  a  movement. 


166  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

Thus  far  we  have  discussed  certain  aspects 
of  the  social  life  of  our  American  cities  from 
within.  Approaching  the  subject  from  with- 
out, we  discover  various  opportunities  for  so- 
cial recreation  of  a  general  nature. 

Of  indoor  amusements,  apart  from  those 
already  discussed,  we  may  mention  the  bil- 
liard room,  the  social  pubhc  halls,  and  the 
theatre.  The  billiard  room,  as  it  is  generally 
operated,  is  more  of  a  saloon  annex  than  a 
saloon  substitute.  Where  it  is  not  controlled 
by  the  saloon-keeper  or  connected  with  the 
saloon,  it  is  placed  as  near  as  possible  to  it, 
and  is  a  stepping-stone  to  the  saloon  to  the 
youth  who  has  not  already  contracted  the 
drink-habit.  The  situation  certainly  suggests 
the  possibility  of  rescuing  these  places  of 
legitimate  entertainment  from  the  associa- 
tions which  tend  to  degrade  them,  and  by 
making  them  helpful  instead  of  harmful 
centres  of  recreation.  Under  competent  man- 
agement they  would  certainly  be  self-support- 
ing- 

In  every  large  city,  especially  in  the  tene- 
ment districts,  there  are  public  halls  which 
serve  as  centres  for  the  social  life  of  the 
neighborhood,  where  dances,  weddings,  and 


SUBSTITUTES  FOR  THE  SALOON         167 

family  and  neighborhood  celebrations  take 
place.  The  social  value  of  these  halls  is 
great,  affording,  as  they  do,  one  of  a  very 
few  places  of  recreation  where  men  and  wo- 
men can  meet  upon  a  common  social  basis. 
Nearly  all  of  these  halls  are,  however,  owned 
or  operated  by  liquor  dealers,  and  a  bar  is 
commonly  to  be  found.  At  the  larger  dances 
and  public  balls,  intoxication  is  very  com- 
mon. All  this  emphasizes  once  more  the 
need  of  respectable,  quiet,  and  well-ventilated 
halls  where  liquor  is  not  served,  as  essential 
to  the  solution  of  the  social  problem. 

A  very  careful  study  has  been  made  of  the 
theatre  in  its  influence  upon  the  social  life 
of  the  people.  In  general,  it  must  be  said 
that  its  influence  falls  far  below  what  it 
might  and  ought  to  be,  because  the  best  plays 
are  beyond  the  financial  reach  of  the  people 
who  most  need  them.  The  melodrama,  which 
used  to  be  offered  at  low  rates,  has  largely 
given  way  in  our  day  to  vaudeville  perform- 
ances which  are  by  no  means  so  wholesome 
in  their  effect.  In  cheap  vaudeville  theatres 
the  tendency  is  constantly  downward,  and 
these  are  precisely  the  theatres  most  fre- 
quented by  those  who  need  a  higher  and 


168  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

better  form  of  recreation.  The  theatre  — 
that  is  as  it  exists  to-day  —  is  an  educational 
or  helpful  centre  of  amusement  for  only  the 
merest  fraction  of  the  wage-earners  of  our 
great  cities.  And  it  will  never  become,  in  the 
best  sense,  "  a  people's  theatre "  so  long  as 
it  is  controlled  by  syndicates  having  an  eye 
solely  to  profits.  If  the  interests  which  at 
present  operate  the  theatres  of  the  country 
cannot  take  a  proper  view  of  their  opportu- 
nity, then  the  work  must  be  taken  up  either 
as  a  philanthropic  or  as  a  municipal  enter- 
prise. We  have  the  beginnings  of  such  a 
municipal  theatre  in  France.  It  ought  not 
to  be  long  before  it  is  realized  in  our  own 
cities,  where  there  is  desperate  need  of  whole- 
some dramatic  entertainment  at  rates  within 
reach  of  the  wage-earners. 

Outdoor  amusements  compete  only  indi- 
rectly, perhaps,  with  the  saloon ;  yet  their 
general  influence  is  large  in  lifting  the  peo- 
ple, for  at  least  a  portion  of  the  year,  above 
the  saloon  level.  Of  the  need  of  playgrounds 
for  the  children  mention  has  already  been 
made.  The  open  spaces  and  small  parks  in 
our  large  cities  are  of  the  utmost  importance 


SUBSTITUTES  FOR  THE  SALOON        1G9 

also  in  furnishing  the  laboring  people  with 
an  attractive  meeting  place,  and  Avith  the 
social  opportunity  which  the  saloon  affords. 
The  large  parks  at  a  distance  from  the  poor 
resident  sections  never  take  the  place  of  these 
neighborhood  parks,  which,  however  small, 
are  of  incalculable  service.  The  large  parks 
in  many  American  cities  are  too  inaccessible, 
and  the  rate  of  transportation  is  too  high  to 
make  them  a  great  benefit  for  the  poor  peo- 
ple. A  pubHc  park,  to  be  of  the  greatest 
value  to  the  working  people,  must  not  be  in- 
accessible from  any  part  of  the  city,  must  be 
reached  by  a  five-cent  fare,  and  must  offer 
amusements  that  attract  and  divert.  The 
growing  custom  of  street-railway  corpora- 
tions to  own  and  operate  public  amusement 
parks  is  commendable  where  these  are  free 
from  objectionable  amusements.  The  open- 
air  vaudeville  shows,  however,  are  not  always 
above  reproach,  and  where  liquor  is  freely 
sold  the  results  are  not  good. 

The  municipality  is  able  to  contribute  to 
the  solution  of  the  social  problem  in  other 
ways  which  may  be  conveniently  mentioned 
here.  The  athletic  interest  affords  a  field 
for  the  wise  use  of  municipal  funds.    The 


170  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

public  gymnasium  is  a  little  known  institution 
in  our  American  cities,  yet  where  it  exists 
its  influence  for  good  has  been  immediately 
felt.  Boston  operates  several  municipal  gym- 
nasiums, the  operation  and  maintenance  of 
which  have  cost  only  moderate  sums,  while 
the  benefits  in  increased  healthfulness  and 
sobriety  have  been  marked.  A  substantial, 
roomy  gymnasium  can  be  erected  and 
equipped  for  $20,000.  It  would  be  difficult 
to  suggest  a  more  profitable  investment  of  a 
city's  funds. 

Outdoor  gymnasiums  are  conducted  by  the 
municipality  in  Boston,  in  New  York,  and 
elsewhere,  with  unvarying  success  from  the 
point  of  view  of  patronage,  economy,  and 
visible  results  in  the  decrease  in  lawlessness 
and  intoxication.  It  is  much  to  be  wished  that 
these  might  be  established  in  every  munici- 
pality. The  same  is  to  be  said  of  the  public 
baths.  These  are  always  crowded  wholly  be- 
yond their  capacity,  and  exert  the  most  whole- 
some influence.  A  bath  costing  $20,000  will 
accommodate  800  daily,  and  will  do  much  to 
promote  a  city's  health  and  morality.  No 
municipality  will  really  have  discharged  its 
duty  until  it  brings  within  the  reach  of  all, 


SUBSTITUTES  FOR  THE  SALOON        171 

in  winter  as  well  as  in  summer,  facilities  for 
securing  the  physical  cleanliness  that  bears 
such  close  relationship  to  social  and  moral 
well-being. 

The  effort  to  compete  with  the  saloon  upon 
the  basis  of  food  and  drink  presents  a  very 
difficult  problem.    The  most  that  can  be  said 
of  temperance  drinking  places  is  that  they 
satisfy  the  normal  thirst  without  compelling 
one  to  enter  a  saloon  for  that  purpose.    On 
the  ground  of  satisfying  the  natural  craving 
for  drink,  these  temperance  places  are  exerting 
a  large  influence.  Unhappily,  however,  where 
the  morbid  appetite  for  liquor  begins,  this 
competition  ceases,  and  the  superior  attraction 
of  the  alcoholic  drink  can  be  met  only  by  the 
provision  of  other  attractions  of  such  a  kind 
and  variety  that  they  will  overcome  the  single 
appeal  to  appetite.    Such,  in  a  word,  is  the 
\  philosophy  underlying  the  coffee  house,  the 
\  tea  saloon,   the  temperance  tavern,  and  all 
f  similar  institutions.    As  against  the  bar  with 
(  its  beer  and  whiskey  there  is  a  bar  with  its 
!   temperance  drinks,  and,  in  addition,  a  well- 
stocked  reading-room,  a  billiard  room,  a  bowl- 
ing alley,  and  perhaps  good   lodging   and 


172  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

wholesome  food,  —  resources  that  can  satisfy 
not  only  the  normal  thirst,  but  the  normal 
desire  for  recreation  and  sociability  as  well. 
Where  these  are  provided,  and  all  religious 
and  charitable  ideas  are  excluded,  temperance 
drinking  places  may  expect  a  fairly  good 
patronage,  and  may  under  favorable  condi- 
tions pay  the  running  expenses.  They  cannot 
expect,  however,  to  realize  any  profit  on  the 
capital  invested. 

Another  plan  has  been  suggested.  It  has 
been  proposed  that  temperance  saloons  recog- 
nize the  demand  for  alcoholic  stimulant  as 
I  legitimate,  and  provide  good  beer  and  light 
wines  to  be  sold  with  discretion  and  with  no 
attempt  to  make  a  profit.  This  plan  is  already 
in  operation  in  England.  The  Bishop  of 
Chester  and  other  influential  persons  organ- 
ized in  1897  the  People's  Restaurant  House 
Association,  the  aim  of  which  is  to  establish 
canteens  and  refreshment  houses  at  large 
public  works  where  liquor  shall  be  distributed 
under  right  conditions.  These  conditions  are 
held  to  be  as  follows :  the  manager  to  be  paid 
a  fixed  salary,  and  to  be  allowed  no  profit 
on  the  sale  of  alcoholic  drinks;  but  to  be 
allowed  a  profit  on  all  food  and  non-alcoholic 


SUBSTITUTES  FOR  THE  SALOON         173 

drinks  which  are  prominently  displayed  and 
promptly  served ;  and  great  care  to  be  taken 
to  secure  the  pure  quality  of  the  liquor  sold. 
This  association,  which  has  done  good  work 
in  England  on  what  we  may  well  believe  to 
be  right  principles,  has  not  been  systemati- 
cally imitated  in  America.  Yet  it  may  be  said 
to  present  a  practicable  plan  for  proceeding 
at  once  to  better  the  conditions  under  which 
intoxicants  are  sold  without  waiting  for  fur- 
ther legislation. 

Lunch  rooms  and  restaurants,  of  which  so 
many  are  to  be  found  in  all  our  cities,  are 
not  in  any  real  sense  competitors  of  the  saloon 
free  lunch  for  the  reason  that,  as  a  rule,  the 
restaurant  keeper,  in  order  to  make  a  living, 
is  obliged  to  place  such  a  price  upon  the  food 
or  to  serve  it  under  conditions  so  unattrac- 
tive as  to  leave  the  free  lunch  practically  un- 
rivaled. It  is  only  as  the  element  of  profit  is 
eliminated  from  the  retailing  of  food  that  it 
can  be  served  in  sufficient  quantities,  for  a 
low  enough  price,  or  with  sufficient  attrac- 
tions, to  overcome  the  superior  advantages 
already  held  out  by  the  saloon.  In  this  way 
eating  places  may  become  rivals  of  the  saloon 
as  food  centres  and   social  centres  as  well. 


174  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

This  fact  is  itself  a  great  encouragement,  and 
ought  to  stimulate  without  any  delay  activity 
in  this  branch  of  temperance  work.  It  will 
fall  to  churches,  temperance  organizations, 
and  private  philanthropies  that  are  not  look- 
ing for  a  return  on  capital  invested,  to  form 
lunch-room  or  coffee-house  associations,  and 
to  plant  lunch  rooms  or  restaurants  in  local- 
ities where  saloons  are  abundant  and  where 
the  saloon  free  lunch  is  drawing:  all  the 
trade.  Nothing  that  manufacturers  have  done 
for  their  employees  can  show  better  results 
than  the  provision  by  the  company  of  good 
meals  at  low  prices.  By  this  simple  means 
alone  the  comfort  and  morals  of  large  num- 
bers of  men  have  been  noticeably  improved, 
and  often  neighboring  saloons  have  been 
driven  out  of  business. 

In  conclusion,  two  other  methods  of  rival- 
ing the  influence  of  the  saloon  must  be  men- 
tioned. They  are  the  most  fundamental  of 
all.  The  first  is  the  method  of  improving 
the  outer  conditions  and  the  inner  life  of  the 
home.  The  second  is  the  education  and  moral 
enlightenment  of  the  individual. 

The  natural  and  rightful  competitor  of  the 


SUBSTITUTES  FOR  THE  SALOON         175 

saloon  is  the  home.  But  before  home  life 
begins,  houses  should  be  provided  with  at 
least  the  elementary  conditions  of  sanitation, 
privacy,  air,  and  space.  Yet  these  are  denied 
to  thousands  of  working  people  in  our  cities, 
who  seek  in  a  saloon  what  they  should  find 
in  the  home.  Sanitary  reform  is  the  founda- 
tion of  any  effort  to  provide  suitable  homes 
for  the  working  people.  Experience  has  con- 
clusively shown  that  this  cannot  be  surely 
and  expeditiously  brought  about  by  the  regu- 
larly constituted  authorities  alone.  The  co- 
operation of  public-spirited  citizens,  sanitary 
aid  societies,  and  other  associations  is  very 
desirable.  It  has  also  been  definitely  deter- 
mined that  whenever  the  housing  problem 
becomes  acute,  either  the  regular  or  specially 
appointed  officers  must  have  the  authority  to 
expropriate  evidently  unwholesome  buildings, 
to  evict  tenants,  and  to  prosecute  offenders. 
Until  such  a  statute  has  been  enacted  little 
real  progress  can  be  made.  Ordinances  seek- 
ing to  regulate  the  erection  of  new  tenement 
buildings  will  have  regard  to  light,  air,  fire- 
escapes,  sanitary  and  bath  conveniences,  and 
to  the  prevention  of  overcrowding.  There 
is  to-day  no  excuse  whatever  for  the  erection 


176  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

of  buildings  in  any  American  city  violating 
these  fundamental  conditions.  But  the  chief 
encouragement  in  this  important  branch  of 
reform  comes  from  the  fact  that  improved 
housing  pays  not  only  in  the  results  accom- 
plished, but  in  dollars  and  cents.  An  analysis 
of  the  economic  experience  of  all  companies 
engaged  in  providing  good  housing  facilities 
for  the  poor  —  such,  for  example,  as  the  City 
and  Suburban  Homes  Company  of  New 
York  —  has  demonstrated  that  "about  four 
per  cent,  and  a  safe  reserve  can  be  earned  on 
model  tenement  buildings  anywhere  charging 
customary  rents,  provided  the  total  cost  of 
the  completed  property  does  not  exceed  five 
hundred  dollars  per  room."  Such,  then,  is 
the  encouraging  experience  in  this  branch  of 
social  economics.  It  is  to  be  remembered  also 
that  the  evident  effect  of  the  erection  of  im- 
proved dweUings  is  to  raise  the  standard  of 
tenement  erection  by  those  who  are  not  ani- 
mated by  any  philanthropic  motive.* 

Similarly  encouraging,  although  here  the 
amount  of  evidence  is  not  so  large,  are  the 
results    of   recent   experiments   to   establish 

1  "  Substitutes  for  the  Saloon,"  pp.  268-288,  Municipal 
Affairs  Magazine,  March,  1899. 


SUBSTITUTES  FOR  THE  SALOON         177 

hotels  for  unmarried  workingmen  at  prices 
within  reach  of  the  poorest.  The  experience 
of  hke  enterprises  in  England  has  been  con- 
firmed, that  such  hotels  can  accomplish  an 
inestimable  social  service,  and,  in  addition, 
be  made  to  pay  all  expenses  and  to  yield  a 
comfortable  income  on  the  money  invested. 

Home  hfe  depends,  of  course,  even  more 
upon  the  mental  and  spiritual  resources  of 
those  who  inhabit  the  home  than  upon  the 
external  conditions  of  the  home  itself.  It  is 
clear  that  the  housing  of  the  people  does  not 
solve  the  problem  of  home  life  ;  yet,  in  so  far 
as  externals  are  favorable,  they  do  help  to 
raise  the  standard  of  hvmg,  and  to  increase 
the  self-respect  of  the  home-makers.  The 
unselfish  love  of  that  which  is  holy,  the 
steadfastness  of  purpose  which  holds  one 
close  to  the  fulfillment  of  his  ideal,  and  the 
willing  sacrifice  of  all  that  stands  in  the  way 
of  its  realization,  —  these  are  the  elements 
of  a  home  wherever  that  home  may  be.  Fun- 
damental and  personal  as  these  essentially 
are,  it  is  by  no  means  in  vain  that  one  strives 
to  reach  and  strengthen  them.  All  that  is 
done  to  refine,  to  educate,  and  to  cultivate 
the   ideals   reacts  upon  the  character,  and 


178  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

fulfills  its  highest  aim  when  the  man  thus 
reinforced  takes  the  product  of  his  own 
enlijrhtenment  into  his  home.  The  same  re- 
finement  due  the  man  is  vastly  more  an  ob- 
ligation to  the  woman,  who  is  the  real  maker 
of  the  home.  It  is  her  personality  that  cre- 
ates the  home  atmosphere,  and  upon  her 
strength  of  character  depends  very  largely 
the  influence  and  the  power  of  the  home. 

Thus  the  real  solution  of  the  liquor  pro- 
blem from  this,  as  from  every  other  point  of 
view,  is  seen   to  rest  finally  in  the   moral 
equipment  of  the  individual.    Those  forces 
,    that  make  for  the  development  of  personality 
\  are  in  the  last  analysis  the  forces  that  are 
doing  the  most  to  overcome  the  evils  of  the 
liquor  traffic.    It  is  at  this  point,  rather  than 
in  the  development  of  institutional  activity, 
I  — although  this  is  by  no  means  unimpor- 
1  tant,  —  that  the  Church  can  render  her  most 
\  effective  service.    It  is  here  that  the  relation 
lof  public  school  education  to  public  morality 
is  clearly  visible.  And  it  has  become  apparent 
that  a  system  which  in  spite  of  its  excellence 
retains  only  six  per  cent,  of  the  total  popula- 
tion of  the  United  States  within  its  schools 
after  the  age  of  fourteen  years  is  not  doing 


SUBSTITUTES  FOR  THE  SALOON         179 

what  it  should  to  develop  those  inner  re- 
sources of  mind  and  heart  which  alone  can 
create  and  satisfy  desires  far  above  the  ap- 
peals of  appetite.  To  make  good  these  defi- 
ciencies the  municipal  night  schools,  public 
lecture  courses,  free  public  libraries,  univer- 
sity extension  societies,  educational  classes 
connected  with  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association,  and  such  popular  educational 
institutions  as  Cooper  Union  in  New  York, 
have  been  established.  Free  readinof-rooms 
in  crowded  districts  have  met  with  large  suc- 
cess. Where  these  are  provided  with  well- 
lighted  front  entrances,  comfortable  seats, 
tables  supplied  with  reading  matter  and  the 
daily  papers,  they  attract  large  numbers. 
Such  reading-rooms  are  amazingly  rare,  yet 
the  cost  of  maintenance  is  slight,  and  their 
popularity  and  usefulness  are  unquestionable. 
Night  schools  are  a  most  important  part 
of  this  supplemental  system  of  education,  and 
where  the  curriculum  is  made  broad  enough 
to  bear  directly  on  the  occupations  of  the 
youthful  wage-earners,  and  where  the  teacher 
comes  fresh  to  the  work,  their  effectiveness 
is  very  great.  The  free  lecture  courses  pro- 
vided by  the  Board  of  Education  in  New 


180  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

York  and  elsewhere,  as  well  as  by  the  vari- 
ous university  extension  societies,  provide 
intellectual  and  educational  stimulus  to  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  people.  These  lectures 
have  been  most  effective  where  care  has  been 
taken  to  secure  the  very  best  lecturers,  and 
to  make  the  work  m  each  centre  continuous. 
Such  work  cannot  in  the  nature  of  the  case 
be  self-supporting,  but  it  is  one  of  the  most 
judicious  of  the  civic  investments  of  the 
taxpayer. 

Public  libraries  in  order  to  do  their  best 
work  must  be  free,  must  make  it  easy  for  the 
people  to  get  their  register  cards,  and  must 
plan  to  facilitate  the  use  of  books.  This  can 
best  be  accomplished  by  working  in  coopera- 
tion with  other  educational  centres,  by  branch 
and  traveling  libraries,  and  by  permitting  free 
access  to  at  least  a  considerable  number  of 
books,  so  that  the  sight  of  the  books  may 
stimulate  circulation.  In  fact,  the  ideal  of 
all  popular  educational  enterprises  is  to  reach 
the  largest  number,  and  to  supply  as  con- 
cretely as  possible  the  specific  needs  of  the 
different  elements  of  the  city's  population, 
in  the  belief  that  "  a  man  needs  knowledge, 
not  as  a  means  of  livelihood,  but  as  a  means 


SUBSTITUTES  FOR  THE  SALOON         181 

of  life ; "  that  the  future  of  the  saloon  de- 
pends on  public  sentiment  and  on  economic 
conditions  that  will  improve  only  as  public 
education  advances  and  enters  more  and 
more  deeply  into  the  life  of  the  people. 

Of  even  greater  educational  value  is  the 
silent  but  pervading  work  being  carried  on 
by  the  little  groups  of  settlement  workers  in 
nearly  all  of  our  American  cities.  Such  work 
is  too  personal  to  be  describable  in  outer 
terms.  But  if  this  chapter  of  social  reform 
were  to  be  adequately  presented,  it  would  be 
felt  by  every  one  to  be  among  the  most  fun- 
damental of  all  attempts  to  meet  the  issues 
ffrowins:  out  of  the  social  allurements  of  the 
saloon. 

The  volume  of  which  this  report  is  an  ab- 
stract has  been  written  to  little  purpose  if  it 
has  not  shown,  on  the  one  hand,  the  danger 
of  leaving  the  saloon  to  keep  its  present 
strategic  position  in  the  social  life  of  the 
American  people,  and,  upon  the  other  hand, 
the  present  possibilit}^,  both  by  the  negative 
method  of  repressive  legislation  and  by  the 
positive  method  of  developing  wholesome 
recreative  agencies,  of  satisfying  the  legiti- 


182  THE  LIQUOR  PROBLEM 

mate  demand  for  sociability  and  amusements 
in  higher  and  better  ways.  If  these  two 
points  have  been  clearly  demonstrated,  the 
ultimate  solution  of  the  liquor  problem  may 
not  be  as  far  distant  as  we  have  sometimes 
been  tempted  to  believe. 


(3n>E  JtitcrjSibe  }^te0 

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